No Matter What
by ItstheCap
Summary: How far would you go to save the ones you love? A hedgehog on the streets, hunted by an underground organization, is about to find out when fate decides to take things to the next level, dragging Sonic and his friends into a mysterious plot as an old threat rises, one Sonic may not be able to beat on his own this time. Life as they know it is about to change... (ON HIATUS)
1. Prologue

**Welcome to _No Matter What_ , the story that takes the Sonic universe and puts it into a new perspective, one that has not really been explored too deeply by others.**

 **There is music to accompany certain scenes that will help put you in the scene as you read, so I'll underline the artist and title of the piece that you can look up on YouTube or SoundCloud (I will specify if you have to look it up on the latter). This may be a little more cinematic than the usual Sonic soundtrack but I still feel like it fits pretty well with the story. I highly suggest taking a listen to them when they come up, as well as heeding any other instructions they may have.** **It will appear as such:**

-*Artist - Title*-

 **WARNING: There is a reason this fic is rated M. This story will contain a lot of dark themes, including graphic violence, bullying and abuse, sexual assault, depression, death and suicide, as well as exploring the topic of trafficking. More on this story can be found on my bio. There are scenes that may be triggering to some, so if you do not feel you can bear to read through them but want to continue (which I wouldn't recommend if you can't), then I will leave a warning ahead of time in the chapter to let you know where you should skip to a safe section. So yeah, I'm gonna throw the "viewer discretion advised" warning now.**

 **Without further ado, I hope you enjoy what I have to offer! If you find it interesting or have any kind of feedback, please feel free to leave a review on what you think! Also, let me know what you think of the music choices, if you have an idea of a piece that would sound great with a particular scene then please tell me what and who it's by so I can listen along too!**

* * *

Prologue

The sun has been absent from the sky for nearly four hours in Metal City, as residents are starting to fall asleep in order to prepare for the next day, while those who are still wide awake can be found wandering about the streets, hopping from one club to another, alcohol numbing their minds as the night goes on. This is common practice in the large metropolis, as the days are busy with people bustling about to their jobs, while the nights are wild for those who wander out of their home in their apartment complex, where those who arrive home with their memories intact are lucky, whether they avoided drinking in the clubs, or avoided trouble on the dark streets that are only illuminated by neon signs and light posts above.

What is also a common practice on the streets at night is crime, whether it be a simple mugging, or kidnapping people, to even rape or murder in alleyways, sometimes both. The police are fairly consistent with keeping crime levels down to a minimum, but even they cannot be everywhere at once, and unfortunately, the worst crimes are those committed while they have their backs turned. It gives Metal City a bad name, as several reports have been made from this city of bodies found in the alleyways by first light.

This night is one of those nights, as a woman is running down the streets, panicking as she is followed from behind by a man with bad intentions. She calls out for help several times, but no one seems to answer her pleas. She tries to lose her stalker by going through an alleyway, but she is tripped up by garbage lying on the ground, falling to the concrete and skinning her hands and knees. She tries to get up, but she is picked up by her stalker and forced with her back to the wall, staring down the man in front of her with fear in her eyes.

"Please, don't hurt me!" The woman cries out as she tries to squirm loose, only to have her wrists gripped tighter by the larger man. "I-I have money in my purse, I-I-I can give it to you, but please, don't hurt me!"

The man only seems to grin more at her pleas. "That's a very tempting offer, babe." The man responds, a hint of cheap alcohol in his breath that makes the woman feel squeamish. "However, I will have to pass this time. Tonight, I'm aiming for a more… _valuable_ prize, and I know that you can give it to me."

The woman is stunned by his words, contemplating what he means. "T-Then w-what do you want from me?"

The man then pushes his body up against hers, grinding his hips against hers, making her squeak as her cheeks heat up. "I want _you_. You and your whole perfect body."

The woman is now petrified by fear, realizing what the man _truly_ wants. Tears start to fall from her eyes as she vainly tries to break loose. "N-No, please…!" She pleads to her assailant, who pays her words no attention.

"Sorry toots, but a man's gotta fulfill his needs, and this man's getting what he deserves tonight!" A hand slowly starting to slip under her skirt and up her thigh.

The woman is now panicking, trying to do anything to make the man let her go, but nothing seems to work. "H-H-HELP!" She cries out, hoping someone will hear her. "RAPE! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

The man quickly pushes her hard against the wall and uses one hand to cover her mouth, preventing her from calling out. "Whoa, we ain't gonna have none of that, are we?" There is now a bit of hostility in his voice. "You're mine now, so take it like the fucking bitch you are! Who knows, maybe you'll even like it and want to come back home with me..."

"That's where you're wrong, bub." A voice suddenly rings out.

The man and the woman look down the alley, and they see someone standing there, someone considerably smaller than they are. They identify that the figure is a male Mobian hedgehog by the quills on his head flowing down rather smoothly. At a first glance, they think that it could be a familiar snarky hero famous worldwide, but upon further examination they find that this is not the case. This hedgehog dons a light coffee brown leather jacket, brown gloves, and black boots that rise halfway up his calves. He has bangs that hang from in between his ears to just above his eyes, not an uncommon physical characteristic for a hedgehog to have. What is rare, however, is the color of his fur. Outside of the average variations of hedgehog fur colors, his lust fur would easily make him stand out amongst a crowd. To differentiate him even more, his belly is white and ruffled at the top, unlike his peach muzzle and arms that are hidden by the sleeves of his jacket. His bright, electric blue eyes glare upon the man who is assaulting the smaller female, delivering the message that he is not happy with the scene in front of him.

The man is unimpressed by this little teenage hedgehog that thinks that he can get in his way. "Go on home to mama, kid. It's past your bedtime anyway." The man tells the hedgehog, trying to scare him off.

"Oh, don't you know?" The hedgehog answers instantly, taking a step closer to the two humans. "I can't sleep when creeps like you wander these streets, and I _really_ could use some shut-eye right about now."

The man starts getting tense, realizing that this hedgehog won't back down and seems willing to fight him for the woman. Panicked, the man pulls out a switchblade and holds it to the woman's throat. The hedgehog, reacting quickly, pulls a specialized Glock 17 hybrid handgun fitted to his size out of his inside jacket pocket and aims at the assailant. "Don't you get any funny ideas, kid!" The man yells at him from behind the woman, who is too petrified by fear of a blade at her throat to move. "You make another move and the bitch gets it!"

"Hey, no need to get antsy." The red hedgehog calmly speaks from behind the holographic sight of his pistol. "Sure, we both want two different outcomes, but don't let the lady get harmed in the process, okay?"

"Just _shut up_ and walk away like you didn't see anything, kid!" The man demands once more.

"I'm not leaving until she's safe from you, so take your pick, asshole. Either you walk away from this with your life or you bleed out from the bullet wound I'll insert into your stomach."

The man is frustrated with the hedgehog's taunts, treating him like he is beneath him, like he is in control of the situation, when the man believes that _he_ controls the situation, he holds the woman's life in his own hands, and he decides her fate. And indeed, the man would be right, he does hold the detonator, and there is nothing the hedgehog can do but wait for the man to make an action, but his frustration over the hedgehog has clouded his judgement to the point where all he wants to do is rip his throat out. So with a yell, he throws the woman aside and lunges at the hedgehog, knife poised to strike. The hedgehog quickly sidesteps to dodge the sharp blade and its owner. He holsters his gun back into his jacket pocket, instead sticking to fighting this guy with his fists. The man swings back at the hedgehog, but the hedgehog is able to block his stab attempt to the side, landing a backhand punch to the man's face. The man stumbles back, stunned by the strength behind the teenager's punch.

Before he can even act, the hedgehog is able to wrestle the knife out of the man's possession, causing it to bounce off the ground and slide over to the woman, who flinches at first but then takes the blade and moves it away from the fight. The man uses his leg to sweep under the hedgehog's own legs, causing him to trip up and fall. He is immediately picked up and slammed against the concrete wall of the alleyway, and just before a fist can land its mark on his left eye, the hedgehog blocks it and knees the man in the chest, knocking the wind out of him as the hedgehog is dropped. The hedgehog proceeds to swing his leg around and kick the man's head into the wall, knocking the man out cold.

The woman watches on in astonishment as the hedgehog picks himself up and dusts off his fur and his jacket, nearly appearing as though nothing had happened, had his panting not given him away. "Th-th-thank you, sir…!" She stammers to the hedgehog.

The hedgehog looks over to her and gives her a small yet sincere smile. "Don't mention it." He tells her, keeping it short and simple.

Now, the woman is able to examine the hedgehog's appearance closer. Even with just coming out of a fight with a potential rapist, sweating a little and appearing a little beat up, his quills appear to be ruffled and filthy, like they haven't been properly cleaned in some time. He does not smell from where she stands, but it is clear to her that the hedgehog in question is not very wealthy.

She puts this aside, looking over to her unconscious assaulter, and she remembers what the hedgehog had said earlier. "You…aren't really going to kill him, are you?" She asks him innocently.

He looks over to the man with a frown, remembering what had just occurred seconds ago. "No, I'm not going to kill him." He answers, taking a nearby strand of rope and tying the man's wrists behind his back and his feet together. "I don't really kill people, and I wouldn't unless I had no other choice."

"Have you done it before?" She asks curiously but with caution.

But the hedgehog does not answer this question as sirens begin to blare. Cops line the end of the alleyway, quickly apprehending the man and dragging him away in cuffs, while the woman is escorted over to an ambulance that is waiting for her. She looks back into the alleyway, but she finds that the hedgehog who had just saved her life has disappeared into the shadows as suddenly as he had appeared. She looks down the alley for a while, wondering where he could have gone, when her attention is redirected to an EMT. "Are you alright, ma'am?" The female EMT asks her.

The woman finds the ability to speak once more after a second of silence. "Yes, I'm fine." She answers.

"We were informed that an attempted attack was occurring here. Did that man sexually assault you?"

"…uh, y-yes…he tried to, but…" She starts to say, but suddenly her train of thought stops as she remembers her savior once more.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but if it's alright, could you tell me what happened?" The EMT questions her, rather concerned.

"I was saved…by a red hedgehog with a brown jacket." She finally speaks up. "I didn't catch his name, though."

The EMT doesn't seem to be surprised at all. "Ah, I think I know who you mean." The EMT says nonchalantly. "He's known around the city for helping others in need."

"But who is he?" The woman mutters to no one in particular, looking out and away from the scene.

Meanwhile, up several stories above the scene, the red hedgehog watches on as the woman is taken to the hospital for examination and the man is taken away to jail for attempted rape.

 _Glad she seems to be alright._ The hedgehog thinks to himself. _No one deserves to have their lives scarred by rape. Unfortunately, crime doesn't rest, so there still may be someone out there who is suffering the fate I just averted here, and I won't be able to stop it._

The hedgehog sighs to himself as he takes a moment to sit down on the edge of the building, dangling his feet over the edge dangerously as he stares up at the half-lit moon and a sky empty of stars from the city lights.

 _Still, I'm thankful I can do what I can. The law enforcement knows enough about me, and fortunately, they've kept my identity a secret from the public_ _. If they find out any more about me, they're sure to put me in an orphanage._

He gives a slight huff to represent laughter.

 _Heh…Like I'd let that happen again. I'm not gonna be forced to rely on someone else for my own survival. I'd probably just end up back on the streets a year later anyway, since no one really would want to adopt a troubled seventeen year old sharpshooter._

He proceeds to stand up, looking out at the city before him, the city he swore to protect with all of his abilities.

 _I wouldn't trust them anyway. They'd probably try to poison my soup or something. I have to remain independent. I have to be able to take care of myself. I have to watch my own back, and I need to watch out for the people here as well. I can't allow what happened before to happen again to somebody else._

With that, he walks away from the scene and heads back into the shadows of Metal City, patrolling the streets as the underground hero he has made himself to be.

-*David Edwards \- Dark Halo*-

* * *

 **Next time on _No Matter What_ :**

 **We find out who this mysterious red hedgehog is**

 **and then follow him as his life takes a new turn...**


	2. Escape from the City

Chapter One: Escape from the City

-*Nicholas Payton – Chinatown*-

The police department is surprisingly packed for the time of day, or rather night. There are still officers moving about, carry several stacks of papers – whether they be forms or evaluations – that need to be completed. These are the officers who work the night shift, patrolling the streets to watch out for any signs of activity that shouldn't be happening. Most of them dislike having to take this shift, but they continue on regardless, as complaining would only result in a deduction of their paycheck, something that most of them cannot afford, as they are the only source of income for their families at home.

Douglas Finnegan, a scrawny sized officer, is working the night shift as well. His blue button-up has a few coffee stains from his clumsiness to maintain stability of his strong cup, and his red suspenders hold up his navy trousers, which seem too large for him on their own. He is starting to doze off once more, exhausted after staying awake for nearly 15 hours, so he doesn't notice the elevator door open from the other side of the cubicles, nor does he hear the sound of boots walking up to him, and is surprised when he is slapped on the side of his face.

"Come on Doug, pull yourself together! The night's still young!" A voice calls from beside him. When Doug looks over, he sees a red hedgehog in a light coffee brown jacket looking rather disappointed at him by his previous lack actions.

"Oh, Kurt, you're back already!" Doug exclaims, recognizing the hedgehog on sight. "I was wondering when you'd be back! It's been getting boring around here!"

"Heh, it might be a little brighter if someone here was actually entertaining and productive." The hedgehog named Kurt responded in a rude yet playful manner.

"Wow...really, man? That's just harsh!"

"Well, someone's gotta say it. Just look at yourself. You're dozing off on the job, you've got drool all over your desk; you'd better watch out, those papers are next!"

"Damn, chill out a little, Kurt." Doug exclaims, tired of hearing Kurt nag him on like a parent. "You're my partner, not my boss, so don't act like him, please! Lord knows I don't need two of him talking in my ear!"

"Well you can't look like a slob either, otherwise he'll come after me, too! We're supposed to keep each other in check, so if one suffers, so does the other, and I'm not going down with your sinking ship, the "S.S. Posture"!"

"Okay-okay, I get it already." Doug ends the topic, cleaning himself off as much as he can from his seat. He brushes crumbs off of his baggy shirt and wipes the drool off of his mouth as he sits up in his chair. "So did you get the guy?"

"Yeah, I got him." Kurt hops into his high desk chair that is obviously not meant for him and plops himself down. "He's a sneaky little thief, I can't believe he got past me the first time. Luckily, I was able to pick up on his trail again, good thing I chose the right bar to have a quick drink from."

Doug raises his eyebrow with curiosity. "I thought you said you don't drink, or is that just an excuse to not go out with the rest of us after work?"

"I don't, I got a water."

"Who the hell orders water from a bar?"

"I do, is there a problem with that?"

Doug is stumped. He can't argue with it, assuming that Kurt must not be one who likes to have a cold one with the boys, or perhaps another reason he doesn't know. After all, there is still a lot about his partner that is unknown to him, other than that he is primarily a realist. No one really knows much about Kurt, in fact he probably knows more about the hedgehog than anyone, which really doesn't say much. All he knows is that Kurt is good at what he does, perhaps better than anyone else here, and his behavioral patterns. The others often wonder why he isn't working for G.U.N. as a special agent or some similar tier.

Doug picks up his coffee in the hopes to rejuvenate his energy, deciding to change the conversation up. "You know Kurt, for a Mobian, you're really damn good at your job, you know that?"

"Are you suggesting that Mobians aren't good at this? A bit offensive, don't you think?"

"No, you know I didn't mean that! I'm saying like overall you're great! You're better than basically everyone else here! You take on a case, and you solve it in no time! Plus, you've got some mad fighting skills, too! You took on that huge brute the other week and brought him down in no time! You've got some skills, man!"

All Kurt can do to that is shrug. "Eh, I guess I'm just motivated to actually do something and figure things out instead of just sitting on my ass all day."

Doug knows that Kurt received training here a couple of years ago after a run-in where he helped them nab a large Mobian rhino that was running rampant. He isn't sure what exactly they taught him, for he was trained under a different group of people than Kurt was, but whatever they taught him must have been highly advanced, or was he always that skilled? "Well, I for one would like to know your motivation. If it works so well for you, then maybe it'll do the same for me!"

Doug can see that Kurt is unnerved by this. It's not very visible, but there are little things he has picked up that Kurt does, such as slightly tensing up or his breath hitching. "It's rather personal to me." Kurt responds, sounding rather bothered. "Just be thankful for what you've got."

Doug has grown tired of hearing this same answer over and over again for the last three years, he would like some answers. "Oh, come on, Kurt! We've known each other for some time now! We're partners, surely you could trust me with something like that!"

"Doug, don't push it." Kurt's sharper than average canines poke out from his mouth a little as he grits his teeth. "It's a personal matter that I don't want to talk about, and I would appreciate it if you would respect my privacy."

Doug sighs, tired of hearing these counters to his arguments as he slopes down in his chair, giving up the fight. "Alright, fine." He finally responds, raising his hands up and spinning around in his chair. "But you'll tell me someday, right?"

Kurt simply allows him the last word and pulls out a form to start working on the case report. He sighs, digging back into his drawer and pulls his glasses out of their case and places them upon his face. Doug can sense the melancholy that emanates from Kurt's figure, and decides to return to his work. He doesn't know much about his work partner, but he can tell that whatever it is that Kurt isn't telling him must be something really bad, and he can only wonder what must have happened to the hedgehog that made him become so defensive.

* * *

Once he finishes his report, Kurt packs up his stuff, remembering to clock out of work as he heads for home…well, what he can call home at least. He reaches an alley close by the police department's station, arriving just before it starts to rain. With the clouds hanging over, it's almost impossible to tell that it is morning. Over the years, he's managed to collect some good scraps of metal to protect him from storms like this, and it has proven its efficiency, as it has yet to show signs of blowing away. He opens up the opening to the small space that he calls home. Making sure that no one is watching him, he crawls into the space and lays down on the small pad he uses as a bed to keep himself off of the cold city ground, making sure to shut the opening behind him. He uses a match to light a little wick candle that provides light to the small space he lives in, illuminating everything around him. Nothing much, just an enclosure that comes out of the old building's foundation.

He looks down at the ground, where he can see a small chalk drawing he made years prior. It is a rough sketch of the head of someone he once knew that he treasured dearly, a vague description of them running through his head as he drew them, as it has been so long since he has seen that face of an angel. He always softly drags a finger across the side of the drawing, as if he were caressing the child's cheek in real life.

 _I promised that I would find you, but I don't know how to do it. I just wish that an opportunity would come soon to where I could finally make good to that promise. You've been gone for so long, and I'm sure that you've changed, but I will make sure that everything goes back to the way it used to be._

He sighs, missing the child that made his miserable life a little brighter. He blows out the candle, allowing the darkness to swallow him as his eyes droop closed, curling up into himself and using his jacket as a blanket of sorts, falling asleep listening to the sound of rain pattering on his metal roof that rests inches above him.

* * *

A few nights later, Kurt is working the night shift once more. He walks into the office and up to his desk, noticing that everyone seems to be out of the room. He is only slightly intrigued as to why he is the only one in the room, but shrugs it off, considering it not important to him. He opens a filing drawer with a key he has stashed in his quills to reveal a dirty, old rucksack filled with various items. Nobody knows it, but this rucksack carries everything that Kurt owns, from several types of small snacks that don't go stale for a while, some water bottles that need to be refilled and filtered, and other various knickknacks he's picked up over the years, the most used being a pocketknife with several different tools equipped, which is the only reason he has it, since he has two combat knives, one in a sheath on the inside of each of his boots. Kurt grabs a towel that is next to the bag, shutting the cabinet and locking it once more.

He walks off to one of the bathrooms, which happens to have a shower located inside of it for those who need to have a quick wash-down. All that is supplied is a bar of soap, everything else must be brought in by the user. Kurt turns the water on in the shower first so that he can let the water warm up while he gets ready. He takes off his gloves and boots first before he finally removes his jacket, now standing as bare as a Mobian can get. Mobian rules regarding levels of nudity are rather different than human ones. Humans and female Mobians are required to wear clothing to cover their private areas, while all male Mobians are required to have is pair of gloves and shoes at the minimum, since their privates are hidden from sight via a concealed pouch, a fact that most humans are unaware of. Kurt only wears a jacket because it was a gift from someone he encountered before he entered Metal City for the first time.

As Kurt steps into the shower, he is dowsed in warm waters that flow through his quills and absorbed, making them grow thicker and heavier. This causes Kurt's quills to fall down further than normal, giving them a feminine look, as female hedgehog quills tend to fall lower than male quills do. He tries not to get worked up over this, as there is nothing he can do to change it. Nevertheless, Kurt is thankful for this shower in the office, as he would have no other way to get clean, which would have resulted in him being back on the streets looking for employment but denied because of his hygiene, as there's no clean body of water near the city he can use to bathe himself in.

He cleans himself up with the bar of soap as much as he can before rinsing and jumping off to turn off the shower. Now he is just a dripping wet figure of fur. He shakes his body similarly to a dog to shake off excess water. He then grabs his towel and uses it to dry himself off the best he can, before jumping up on the counter and looking in the mirror in order to mat his fur back down, as the drying process has made his fur fluffy. He always hates this part about getting cleaned because it takes a long time to groom himself and get his fur to return to where it needs to be, especially his head quills. He had once made the mistake of neglecting to fully groom his quills, only to be ridiculed for how he looked like a girl with his quills hanging down so low, and he swore to himself that he would never make that mistake again.

Deeming his appearance doable, Kurt puts his clothes back on and takes one last look at himself. His fur is still ruffled in some places, and some spots have not gone away, but it is the best that he can do for now, as the bar of soap can only do so much for his hygiene. He is at least glad he doesn't smell anymore. He jumps down from the counter and heads back to his desk.

"There you are, Kurt!" Kurt sees that Doug and the others have all returned and gone back to their duties. "Thought you'd have gotten here sooner!"

"I was using the shower." Kurt answers immediately. "I got involved in an accident earlier today and I needed to wash off."

"Oh, well okay…" Doug feels that Kurt isn't telling the truth, but he decides not to bother with it for now. "Anyway, you missed the boss man, he was going to brief you on a new case that's come in!"

Kurt looks onto his desk, and he sees several different files stacked on top of each other. "Just _one_ new case?" Kurt remarks at the sight before him, unimpressed by Doug's lack of explanation of quantity.

"Well, it's a couple of cases, but they're big for sure, and the boss man felt like you'd be up to it. There's actually a couple there as well. I'm not sure what the exact details of it are, so feel free to take a look for yourself."

Kurt climbs up on top of his chair and grabs the file, starting to look through it. A teen, a couple of years younger than himself, he barely glosses over the name as it is not too important to him at the moment. Female Mobian badger...didn't have rich parents, nor did they have jobs that could potentially make them targets. He notes that the girl had been missing for a couple of years before her corpse was discovered. He takes a look over the cause of death, noting the hole in the teen's head that indicates that she was shot execution-style. Looking over the photos taken from the scene, he examines the body of the teen, quite surprised by the amount of bruises that the girl seemed to have taken on. Perhaps she was abused before she was taken from this world? But why would she have been found dead in an alley?

He looks back to the beginning of the file, taking a scan over the details again. The officer who wrote the initial file indicates that the child was most likely abducted, but this is only a guess since the girl was taken while no one was actually looking. The parents had told the police, and they had searched far and wide across the city, but there was no sign of the girl, not until now.

Kurt starts to feel uneasy, his small stomach churning from what little food he ate this evening. He proceeds onto the photos once more, unsure if he wants to keep reading, but there is something missing, something he has to know. Further examining the body, he is shocked when he sees the photos depicting her lower body. From what he sees, he can tell that this girl was sexually assaulted many times before by the stains left around her front and back.

But Kurt's eyes have halted, gravitated onto one particular feature of this girl's body that makes his blood run cold, his face to grow pale, and his body sweat and tremble in his seat. He can't believe what he is seeing. He knows that he has seen this before.

A dark blue circle around the girl's tail.

He notes that there are more files before him, and Doug had mentioned something about them being similar. He immediately puts the file in his hands down on the desk with little to no care, so some pieces to the case slip out of the file. He takes the next one into his hands, skimming through the details, finding that the same thing has happened to this child. Toss aside this file, look at the next one, same results. This proceeds onward for several files before he loses his hold on the file entirely. Kurt starts to lose all feeling as his body tenses up and his vision goes foggy, his mind fading away into another realm that it has been dragged into before.

* * *

-*FIRST PERSON: KURT'S POV*-

* * *

I remember running down long dark halls, taking every turn I could, while I dragged my brother along behind me. I heard voices yelling from behind me, but I did not dare look back.

"Keep running, Edmund!" I called out to my younger brother. "Don't look back!"

"Cort-Cort, I'm scared!" Edmund responded.

"Don't worry, Edmund!" I immediately answered. "Just keep your eyes on me! I'll get us out of here!"

My memory flashes forward to me running on my own, desperately trying to find Edmund as we were separated earlier. When I reached the outside of the building, I saw that Edmund was out on a landing platform, where he had been captured by their kidnappers and was getting placed into a helicopter.

"Edmund, NO!" I cried out as I tried to reach him, but I was stopped by the edge before me, splashing waters of the sea awaiting me far below. I had no way of getting over to Edmund.

"CORT-CORT, HELP ME!" Edmund screamed into the night, as I could do nothing but watch as the men dragged him onto the helicopter before taking off and flying away. I tried to follow, but could not get to them.

"NO WAIT, COME BACK!" I cried out. "EDMUND!"

But my efforts were in vain as the helicopter disappeared into the night.

* * *

-*THIRD PERSON*-

* * *

"Kurt…Kurt!"

Kurt comes back to his senses, seeing that he is back in the police department of Metal City, with Doug kneeling in front of him, looking concerned. Kurt had fallen from his chair and backed himself up under his desk and into the cubicle wall, curling up into a ball. There is a mess of case files on the floor before him.

"Are you alright, man?" Doug asks once more.

Kurt is reminded about the cases that they were just given. He remembers how the bodies were found, and the damages that were brought upon them. He recognizes this scenario, and he is clearly upset about what has been said.

"I…" Kurt tries to speak, his voice just over a whisper. "…I don't think so…I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"Do you think that you need to go home and get some rest or something?" Doug suggests to him.

Kurt stays silent as he thinks to himself. He knows exactly what is happening and who these children are, not by their identity but the link between them. It is something that has followed him for so long he has almost become used to it. He is only thrown off by this so badly because he has not seen this pop back up for the last three years he has lived in Metal City, he thought he was in the clear, but now he knows better.

He knows how the process goes, and he despises it. Every time this happens, he is forced to relocate to another city, each farther away than the last, and hope that things will work out, but for years this process has repeated itself on a constant loop that he can't escape. How he wishes that things could change, how he could see things through to the end instead of fleeing with his tail between his legs. He is tired of taking the coward's way out, but he still doubts his abilities, even after all of the training he has received over the past few years. There is only one thing he can will himself to do now.

"I need to go talk to the boss." Kurt simply states, getting out from underneath his desk and proceeding across the office. Doug merely watches, and he knows that something must be very wrong if Kurt is acting like this. Doug is even starting to speculate that Kurt might decide to take some time off or something. He has no idea of what Kurt really intends to do.

* * *

Kurt reaches his boss's door, knocking and awaiting a response.

"Come on in!" A voice bellows from inside the room. Fortunate that he does not have to keep twiddling his thumbs and waiting, Kurt opens the door and walks into the office, where his boss, George Plesent, awaits him in his chair. "Ah, if it isn't my favorite recruit!" He exclaims with a laugh. He has a deep belly laugh that seems to make others laugh along with him rather easily. "So what brings you here? Did you have any comments regarding the new cases that have been brought up?"

Kurt is not really ready for this next part, but he takes a big gulp and proceeds. "Actually, sir, it's about my well-being." Kurt answers him, watching as George sits up in his chair, now interested in what he has to say.

"Hmm, and what seems to be the problem, then? Anything that I can do for you?"

"Umm…no, but thanks for the offer." Kurt grows nervous, starting to scratch the back of his head. "You see, sir…things have been happening to me outside of here recently, stuff to do with my…family, that have left me rather shaken and distressed, and I feel that I need to get away to allow myself to heal again."

"Are you just asking for some time off? You've got several days that you can use to take off for this and come back good as new."

"No, sir." He reaches into his pocket, pulling out his police badge. "I'm resigning from the force."

His boss is now surprised by his remark, sitting up in his chair. "Wait, you're not serious, are you?! You're my best guy here, I can't afford to lose someone like you!"

"I know, sir, but I am being serious." Kurt immediately responds. "I regret having to do this, but I need to get away from Metal City, and I need a chance to try and restart my life once more. I'm sorry, sir, I know how much I mean to you, but I need to do this for my own health."

George has been rendered silent instantly, as he tries to process what he has just heard. Kurt's ears lower in shame of what he has just said, but he didn't exactly lie to him, either. This has been his normal excuse for leaving others behind in cities he has lived in in the past, and it still seems to be paying off. Finally, George seems to find words to speak once more.

"Alright, if that's what you wanna do, Kurt." George says flatly. "I'm sorry that you had to make this decision, but I'm sure that it is for the greater good and that you know what you are doing. You were a valuable asset to our office, and you will be missed. Would you like for me to give you your last paycheck? I have it ready for you right here."

"I suppose I could use some for the road. Thank you." He has nothing else to say, so he takes the small stack of money his boss hands him, pocketing it before heading out of the office to go get packed.

* * *

As Kurt proceeds back to his desk, he can hear whispers going all around him, and he knows that they are talking about him. They must have found out that he officially resigned from the force, and the news was spreading fast. Kurt figures this out by the time he reaches his desk.

"So you're actually resigning from the force?" Doug finally asks him as he opens up his cabinet, taking out his rucksack.

"Yeah, I am and I have." Kurt answers, beginning to put his belongings inside of his bag one-by-one. "Things have just come up recently, and I can't stay here anymore. I need to leave town, find somewhere else to go and just get lost there."

"Does this have to do with the cases that have just come up? I mean, you suddenly had this whole change of heart after finding out about it and having that panic attack."

"I'd rather not talk about why I'm leaving, Doug. I just need a chance to start over again. This is just something I can't talk about with you guys." Once Kurt has gathered everything into his bag, he seals it up and slings it over his back as he makes his way over to the door out of the office.

"Hey, Kurt." Doug calls out to him, causing Kurt to turn around and look back, something he did not wish to do, leaving behind some memories in the office. "Will you ever come back here to Metal City? It'd be nice to catch up later if you'd like."

Kurt is a little hesitant to answer, but proceeds anyway, as he has to be honest with himself. "No guarantees."

"Well, just so you know, if you're looking to get lost somewhere, I'd suggest making your way over to Station Square. My wife and I went there once, and it was definitely a better environment there than it is here. I think you'd like it over there."

Kurt is surprised by this advice from Doug, as he is not normally one to give advice to others. Nevertheless, he is happy to hear it, as it does intrigue him. He has heard about Station Square before, he remembers that there was a whole incident involving Dr. Eggman and some kind of god rampaging and flooding the city, only to be saved by the Hero of Mobius himself. Since the rebuilding of the city, he has heard good reviews. "I might just take you up on that. How far is it from here?"

"About five to six hours down the highway." Doug tells him. "Just head east from here and you'll be there in no time."

"Thanks, Doug." He nods as the elevator doors close in front of him. He processes what has just been told to him as he heads out of the police station and heads down the street.

 _Station Square, huh?_ _Five to six hours…probably by car. It'll probably take a long time for me to get there on my own, since I don't have enough money to pay for a cab._

Once he reaches the highway on the outskirts of the city, he looks out, seeing the road stretch for miles. He begins to consider his options.

 _Maybe I'll be able to hitchhike. Eh, but then again, it's probably better that I didn't. Whatever, I can't stick around and dawdle on this for too long. I'd better get moving before anyone notices me._

And so Kurt set out on foot, on his way to Station Square. Little does he know what awaits him there will be sure to change everything for him in a way he would never imagine.

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter was able to be uploaded pretty quickly because there weren't too many edits I had to make on it, but I wouldn't expect updates to be as frequent as this. With the semester coming to a wrap, a lot of things are piling up that I have to take care of, so I may not be able to get the next chapter out for a little while. I would expect anywhere from a minimum of a week to max three weeks for the next update, but don't worry, because the next chapter will be fairly long and entertaining. :)**

 **Please feel free to leave a review on what you thought about this chapter and what you think of the story as a whole! I would love to know about your take on this story and what you think might happen! Just no flames, please...if you have something to say about a spot that needs to be fixed, I will take it to heart and try to improve that particular part.**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What :**

 **Kurt takes to the highway,**

 **where he ends up meeting someone**

 **who will change his life forever…**


	3. A New Journey Begins

Chapter Two: A New Journey Begins

Several days have now passed since Kurt began his journey alongside of the highway, and now he is no longer sure how much farther he could be from the city. He stopped counting the miles after the second day, coming to terms that he had no idea how far he had really gone from Metal City. He is running low on energy supplies in his bag, and his water is nearly nonexistent; what makes it worse is that he is walking out in the middle of what is essentially a wasteland, meaning there isn't water anywhere nearby as the riverbeds have run dry. He has grown tired and weak to the point where he decided that it may be better to try and hitch a ride. Unfortunately, from the few cars that pass by him, none of them stop for him, forcing him to push on. By now, he realizes that he's a little too late for such kindness.

He has not had a wash in several days, and his dirty, sweat-matted fur is evidence of such. It has been some time since he has gone so long without cleaning himself, as back years ago he began to use any method he could to clean himself, whether it be a convenient shower or a pond to even a tiny creek, and those were not pleasant times to bathe himself, as the water of those streams were quite frigid, not to mention the other feral animals that bathe in those streams makes it pretty embarrassing for someone who has become used to using showers. He stopped noticing the smell some time ago, as it is something that he has grown accustomed to smelling, plus he has smelt worse; he remembers how he once went nearly five years without being cleaned.

Soon, night falls, and the moon and the stars now illuminate the sky, painting pictures across it like a canvas board. Kurt is bewildered by this sight every time he sees this, thinking that there is so much outside of the planet Mobius that has yet to be discovered, all amongst those stars that shine brightly through the darkness of the night. He grows tired, and he finds a patch of grass by a log just off to the side of the road and decides to stop for the night here. Leaning against the log, he opens his rucksack and looks for something to eat. Unfortunately, he finds out that there is no food left; he had just finished up his supplies earlier that morning.

"Well, looks like I'm skipping dinner again." Kurt mutters to no one in particular in a rather raspy voice. He takes the opportunity to check his last water bottle, which has a little bit of water left over. He drinks the last of it before putting the empty bottle back in his bag. A cold breeze rolls through, reminding Kurt that even though he is in a hot climate it is still cold at night, especially considering it is the middle of the winter season. He shivers, his teeth clattering a little as he pulls his jacket a little tighter to himself, though it is not great for keeping him warm against the wind.

 _I wonder if I really made the right choice by deciding to_ walk _to Station Square._ _I hope that I'll find some sort of civilization tomorrow._ He has grown too tired to continue thinking, so he lays down on the cool grass below him and quickly succumbs to sleep.

* * *

Kurt is woken by a voice, seemingly calling out to him.

"Hey buddy!" The voice, Kurt identifies as a male, says a little more clearly as he begins to wake up. "You okay?"

Kurt groans as he rubs his eyes, slowly opening them to view what is going on. He is surprised to see someone standing above him, blocking out the sun. He reacts naturally to meeting this new person, using his legs to kick them away from him. The figure grunts as he falls onto his back, while Kurt immediately proceeds to pull his Glock out and aim it at the figure, breathing quickly from being startled. He cannot see clearly yet, as his eyes have yet to adjust to his surroundings, so the figure before him is blurry to him. "Now don't…make…any…moves…!" Kurt pants, keeping his aim trained on the person in front of him.

"Hey man, chill out!" The figure calmly states as he rests his hands behind him so he can lean back on the desert floor, not nervous by a gun pointed at his face, as if he's dealt with situations like this many times before. "I wasn't gonna do anything, I was just checking to see if you were alright!"

Soon, Kurt's vision improves, and he sees that on the other end of his Glock is a blue Mobian hedgehog. He possesses all white gloves and red shoes with a white stripe and golden buckles on the side. His emerald green eyes with a brilliant shine, there's something strange about them, but Kurt shoves it away and squints harder, concentrating on keeping his aim on the hedgehog's heart. "Just who are you?!" The hedgehog seems surprised by this question, as if Kurt but just shrugs it off.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

-*Sonic's Theme (E3)*-

Kurt is taken aback, this name is one he has heard of before. This name...he's seen it appear in the papers. He has been the one responsible for stopping Dr. Eggman's conquest of taking over the world for years now. That moment of realization begins to sink in as he slightly lowers his gun. "Wait…as in, _the_ Sonic the Hedgehog, Hero of Mobius?"

"That would be me!" He states proudly as he flashes a grin, showing off his pearly white canines.

Kurt now realizes that he is pointing his gun and threatening to kill the world's most famous hero, not something to be looked upon lightly. Talk about embarrassing. Fortunately, no one is around but the two of them. He lowers his gun and puts it away. "Sorry, I didn't recognize you. I've never actually seen your face before, only read about you in the papers."

"Heh, no biggie." Sonic shrugs it off. "You didn't know. Though you sure do have an interesting way of greeting people."

Kurt rubs his arm in embarrassment. "I have a hard time trusting others, and I am certainly not used to people standing right over me as I'm waking up."

Sonic snickers a little at this response, knowing that it was directed right at him. "Alright, I'll give you that...well you can trust me. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you!"

 _Yeah, I'd hope, because that would ruin your reputation…_ Kurt thinks to himself. They are left in an awkward silence, to which Sonic looks away to divert his attention, but he can't help but keep looking back at this new hedgehog he has come across. It's not often that he directly comes across another hedgehog, and the last few times he has usually involved some kind of plot from Eggman and also nearly resulted in him getting killed.

Well...there _was_ that one time, but we don't like to talk about that.

"So, uh…" Kurt breaks the ice at last, unable to bear the silence a minute longer, "…what are you doing out here?"

Sonic seems pleased by the sudden upbringing of a new conversation. "Me? Oh, I was just taking my morning run and I was headed for a mountain range on the other side of this place when I ran into you. It's not often that you see hitchhikers out here, so I had to make sure you were okay. Speaking of which, I don't know a thing about you. You got a name, buddy? And what are you doing out here anyway?"

Kurt feels rather uncomfortable, scratching behind his head. "Err…my name is Kurt…the Hedgehog. As to why I'm out here, well…I'm just heading to a new place to start over again with a clean slate." He seems satisfied with this explanation, as it is still half-true, so Sonic doesn't have to know everything.

"Ah? So where do you plan to do that?"

"At this rate," Kurt sweatdrops as his posture sags, "hopefully the nearest form of civilization."

At this remark, Sonic seems to smirk once more, revealing a shining look in his eyes. "Well, the closest town for miles is Station Square."

Kurt is instantly drawn towards his words, giving Sonic his complete attention. "Really?! That's where I was headed!"

"Sweet! It's a pretty cool place to be!"

Kurt is ready to get moving once more, getting up and slinging his rucksack on his back. "So how far away is it from here?"

"From here," Sonic responds, "too far for anyone on foot…" Kurt now seems disappointed by Sonic's information, and feels even more tired at the thought that it will take a really long time to get there by walking.

"…which is why I'm gonna help you out!" That's when Kurt is surprised by Sonic taking hold of his wrist.

"H-hey!" Kurt stammers as he regains his footing. "W-what are you're doing?!"

Sonic gives off a mischievous smile. "Doing ya a favor and giving ya a free ride!"

And without any warning, Sonic blasts off down the highway the way he came, pulling the ruffled red hedgehog along with him.

* * *

A million different thoughts are filling Kurt's head as he is dragged along behind the blue blur, some of them being how he is freaking out at moving at speeds he has never known before, others being how much his arm is straining from being dragged. Before he can think of anything else, Sonic instantly stops in place. Kurt sees stars as he struggles to keep his balance.

"Whoa…" is all Kurt can say as he rests a hand against a wall that appears in his vision. All that he can tell that they have arrived at a place with a wall.

"Ah…home, sweet home!" Sonic exclaims with joy.

 _Huh, we've stopped at his house. Go figure._

Kurt is too dizzy from their trip to focus on anything, so Sonic has to guide him carefully inside the house with an arm around his shoulder. Kurt is unable to register this benevolent action, still trying to allow his stomach to catch up to him. "Well, Kurt, welcome to my humble abode!" Sonic presents his living quarters to the red hedgehog, but Kurt is still too out of it to even process anything around him, and Sonic can tell by the amount of weight Kurt is putting on him. As such, Sonic leads him over to the couch, allowing him to lay horizontal so that he can stop moving. "You look pretty dizzy, so chill out for a bit." Sonic chuckles a little to see Kurt's muzzle go green. "Careful you don't turn too green, or I might mistake you for another hedgehog with a taste for leather!"

"…Wha-" Kurt starts to ask, confused as all hell, but is cut off by Sonic again.

"But that's another story for another day. Anyway, I've gotta go get some stuff from town, so feel free to relax a little here. But don't get _too_ comfy, because I won't be gone long!"

"Wait, wha-" Kurt tries to ask once more, but Sonic has already dashed out of the house in the blink of an eye. "…oookay then…" His head is still spinning, and everything seems to be circling around him, making him feel nauseous. In order to combat this feeling, he sinks deeper into the couch to block out light, closing his eyes and allowing his mind to roam free, thoughtless, almost as if he is trying to go back to sleep. The couch is quite comfortable, the most comfortable piece of furniture he thinks he has ever had the fortune to rest upon. He feels as though he could just snuggle even further into the furniture and just fade away, pushing away all of the problems he faces and confront them another day. It would feel so nice to forget his current life and the hardships he has to endure, but deep down he knows he can't stay relaxed for long. It is only a matter of time, and then he'll be off once again for another city, an endless cycle doomed to repeat itself. Once his nausea dies down, he begins to process everything that has happened to him thus far.

 _So that is the great Sonic the Hedgehog._ _He's a little more childish than I picked him out to be. But he seems to be very kind and means well, so I'll give him that. And now, I'm in his house…_

Kurt thinks his stomach has finally caught back up to him as his nausea has ceased, so he opens his eyes to look around at where he is while sitting up straight and letting his feet dangle off of the side of the couch. He sees that he is in the living room, as there are other couches and chairs around him, mostly pointed at a large, flat-screen TV that is mounted to the wall. In front of him is a large space fitted with a glass coffee table and a rug, the former of which can be moved to the side to allow for friends to gather together to play games on the floor. A fireplace resides behind the largest couch, currently untouched at the moment, likely due the abnormal temperature fluctuation occurring lately, making this winter a mixed one. The faded green wallpaper seems to compliment the plants that grow in their pots in different spots around the house. Kurt is overall impressed by how neat Sonic's home is. He gets up from the smaller couch he is on and decides to look around the house a little bit more.

First coming into the kitchen, he finds it to be rather nice compared to kitchens he has seen. The stove seems to run on electric power, that much Kurt can guess at. The ceramic tile probably isn't the greatest add-on for the kitchen, but he isn't complaining, as he has seen soup kitchens that are absolutely filthy.

He explores down the hallway from the main area, passing by a door that seems to lead down to the basement, a half-bathroom, another door to somewhere else, and a mud room that is at the end of the hall. But throughout the first floor, the things that keep cropping up to Kurt are the pictures hanging around. When he examines them further, he sees that they are of Sonic and his friends together at their little gatherings, or of them saving the day from giant robots. He sees several different people, including a yellow fox, a red echidna, a pink hedgehog, and a light-furred rabbit with a Chao. Kurt sees several different pictures of Sonic being coddled by the pink hedgehog, smiling and looking away rather sheepishly, rubbing the underside of his nose. Looking at these photos, it makes Kurt feel really happy to see them so cheerful together, but on top of that, Sonic's smile makes him beam, though he isn't really sure why. He just assumes that the happiness is contagious.

He grows curious about what could lie upstairs. So he rounds the bend and walks up the stairs to the second floor, but before he can look at the other rooms along the hall, he sees one door opened a little at the very end of the hall. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decides to look past the other two rooms and check out the far room. The first thing that he notices a dark green color coating the walls of the room.

 _Is this Sonic's room?_ _Interesting color choice._

Sonic's room is surprisingly unkempt, quite a contrast to the rest of the house. In the room, the bed sheets to his queen-size mattress are messed up, which suggests to Kurt that Sonic is terrible at remembering to clean up his bed. He sees several medals and plaques hanging on the walls around the room. They are various different awards of honor and service commissioned by the city of Station Square, recognizing Sonic's heroics and contributions to the world. Kurt is impressed by how many he has hanging around, and can only wonder if he has more hiding away somewhere. In the corner of the room, there is an electric guitar leaning up against the wall, surprisingly with no amplifier in sight, so Kurt can only guess that the amp is somewhere else or that the guitar is just for practice.

 _Wow, for the most part Sonic's room is pretty...neat? Eh, really stretching that one..._

He looks out the window at the end of the room just beyond the guitar, where he can see the ocean waves crashing against the shore in the distance. He is surprised that he didn't realize sooner that the house was by the sea, hearing the sound of seagulls from far away. The atmosphere is a peaceful call that beckons him closer, but Kurt doesn't really feel like going to the beach right now, so he ignores it. He turns back to the bed, seeing a picture frame on the nightstand. He turns on the light next to the picture and takes it into his hands. It is a picture of Sonic and the yellow fox together, arms over the other's shoulder, respectively giving a thumbs up to the camera. Both have wide grins as they show off their pearly whites, brightening Kurt's mood even more.

 _Those two must be close._

Kurt notices a plaque under the picture with only one word:

FAMILY

Kurt is frozen in place, simply staring in awe at the word itself. The word resonates in his mind, unending as it grows louder. Kurt's vision blurs as his mind begins to clock out and travel elsewhere, a world of the past long forgotten returning as his old memories begin to resurface.

* * *

-*FIRST PERSON: KURT'S POV*-

* * *

I remember a time long ago, back when I went by a different name, barely making it out of a convenience store on the other side of an unnamed city, dashing through the streets in the rain with a bar of candy in my hands. It was not my intention to grab this item, but it was the first thing I saw, so I took it, hid it in my quills, and ran as fast as I could. I hid in a dumpster and shut the lid to get away from the man I thought was chasing me. I was panting heavily, as all of the running I had done had worn me out, even with the energy of being a child. I took deep breaths in through my pointy nose and out my mouth. I had come a little too close to getting caught this time.

Once my breathing had settled down to normal, I checked to see if the coast was clear. No one, all good. I jumped out of the dumpster and made my way down the streets once more. Eventually, I arrived at a bridge over another busy highway, a place not usually inhabited by anyone as it was usually checked routinely every month by police officers or social workers, but I was smart enough to remember when they came around. They really only looked for homeless humans, not hedgehogs, something I was thankful for and envious for at the same time. I walked up the slope to just before it reached an end, where a ledge appeared and seemed to have a small blanket laid out on the ground with a bulge coming from underneath it. I knew what the bulge was and smiled.

 _Good, he's still here._

I gave the bulge a few quick taps before sitting down on the ground against the small wall beside it. The bulge began to move, and a bright-yellow furred hedgehog, much shorter than the five year-old red furred one next door, appeared from underneath the blanket, yawning from having been woken up in the adorable way he does. "Wakey-wakey, little tyke." I said with a smile on my face.

"Aww…" The tiny hedgehog groaned. "Do I haf to…?"

"Yes you do, Eddy, because I said so."

"Because you'we owder than me and wike to boss me awound…" Edmund mumbled to himself, but not quietly enough to where I couldn't hear it.

"Oh, really?" I began to tease Edmund as I pulled the candy bar out of my quills. "Oh, well that's too bad then. I guess that I'll have to forget about giving you this candy bar I got earlier and eat it myself."

Immediately Edmund's attention turned to me, realizing what I now have. "No, pwease, I'm sowwy! I'w be good!" He protests, holding on to me while I held the bar up in the air out of the yellow child's reach. "Can I pwease have it? It's my favowite!"

"Hmm…" It was always fun to tease him since he was my little brother, but I decided to let him win for a change, since I recently found out that I was allergic to the stuff I was holding anyway (it was fine for me to touch, it would only bad if I had ingested it). "Oh, I suppose you can, since I did get it for you, after all." I proceeded to bring the bar back down and give it to my younger brother.

"Weawwy?! Yay!" Edmund was excited, dancing around before running back to hug me tightly. "Tank you, Couwt-Couwt, tank you! You'we da best bwoda evaw!"

I chuckled some more. "You're welcome, Brody." I returned the hug.

* * *

-*THIRD PERSON*-

* * *

The sudden memory coming to Kurt makes him tense up, losing his grip on the picture in his hands. He does not realize this, nor does he feel the frame slips from his fingers and fall to the floor, the sound of glass shattering echoing through the house. Hardly even a second after the sound is made, a whoosh is heard, and the door is thrown wide open. Sonic bolts into the room, having just returned from the store. He was about to put away the groceries when he heard the noise. Sonic looks at Kurt's face, seeing it in a zoned out state. He immediately grows concerned for his guest. "Kurt…?"

Kurt, now being brought back to reality, sees Sonic, before looking down to see the mess that he's made, tensing up once more. He has broken possibly Sonic's favorite picture frame, surely he would be in for it now! "Oh crap…I'm so sorry, Sonic!" He stammers, getting on his hands and knees to try and pick up the shards of glass on the floor as an act of redemption. "I didn't mean to drop your picture! Let me clean it up-!"

But Sonic seems to have other concerns at the moment, as the response he gives to Kurt is not one that he expected. "Hey, it's okay, don't worry about it!" Sonic eases Kurt and pulls him away from the mess, gently sits him on the bed instead. "It can be fixed later. I'll get it, I'm faster anyway!"

And Sonic indeed proves to his word as he picks up the pieces much faster than Kurt did, though Kurt was doing it rather clumsily since he was still trembling from his flashback. "Really…?" He proceeds to ask Sonic, making sure that he isn't in any trouble.

"Yeah, no sweat!"

Kurt is bewildered by Sonic's kind actions. He did not expect this kind of reaction at all. Normally, anytime something like that would happen, Kurt would expect to end up in a fight that wouldn't end well for either side, and having a situation like that with the Hero of Mobius, Kurt expected that he would have been royally screwed, but instead he is treated as if nothing ever happened. "You're not mad?"

"Mad?" Sonic almost chuckles at the question. "Why would I be mad? Because you broke a picture frame? That's small stuff, so don't sweat it! It's replaceable! The picture is fine, just needs a new frame is all!" Soon, Sonic has picked up all of the pieces and thrown them away in a trash can nearby, and once he does so, he returns to Kurt and sits next to him on the bed. "What about you? You were in like a daze when I ran into the room."

"Me?" Kurt responds. "Oh, I'm alright. I just…" Kurt, in a desperate attempt to keep from telling Sonic about what's bothering him, tries to pull a red herring out of his ass real quick. "…tend to be clumsy at times, and I guess I let it slip out of my hands!" _Seriously? There's no way he'll buy that load of shit!_ Sonic even looks like he is growing suspicious, which really causes Kurt's anxiety to rise, making him sweat a little.

"Hmm…okay, if you say so." Sonic says as he lays down on his back for a moment, his hands behind his head and elbows out to the side.

 _Did he really just buy that?!_ _Unless-_

"Hey, why don't you come on downstairs and I'll fix something to eat?" Sonic rips Kurt out of his thoughts as he hops up from the bed and waits by the door.

"Uh…okay, I suppose." Kurt says, not wanting to be rude to his host. Kurt gets up from the bed and follows Sonic back down the stairs.

* * *

About half an hour later, we find Kurt sitting on the sofa chair with one leg on top of the other, patiently waiting for Sonic to finish whatever it is he is doing in the kitchen. He is rather anxious because of how he was nearly forced into a situation where he would have to tell about his past, which is something he is trying to avoid like the plague. It scares him to think back too often, and so he tries to remain as emotionless as possible by thinking about other things, things that are important, such as the future and what it may hold, though when he does this, he can't help but think about Edmund once more, which makes him worry more. In the end, he just tries to forget about everything and just live in the moment, which given his current circumstances is quite unpredictable and does not really put him at ease.

Fortunately, before Kurt can go into any deep thinking, a ding is heard from the kitchen, followed by a whoop from Sonic, as he comes out with a plate full of something steamy and delicious looking. "Order up!" He exclaims, showing off his masterpiece. "Freshly made gourmet chili dogs, crafted by yours truly!"

Kurt seems a little puzzled. "A what now?"

"Chili dogs!" He repeats, looking over to Kurt with a funny face, wondering if Kurt heard him right or not.

"Hmm…can't say I've ever had one before."

Every day after this moment, Kurt will always swear that he heard the sound of glass shattering after these words were uttered. Sonic clutches his heart, his face bearing a look of horror. "I can't believe the words I'm hearing!" He moans in agony, a ploy Kurt recognizes as him just overreacting rather dramatically. "To think…there are people out there in the world…who have been denied the right to feast on a meal _sent from the heavens_!"

He gets a chuckle out of Kurt, who was entertained by Sonic's performance. "I take it that this is your favorite food then, right?"

"Ever since I was a hoglet." He answers proudly with a hand at his hip and a thumb pointed at himself before holding his hand out towards the plate on the coffee table in front of them. "Here, you haven't had one before, so take the first one!"

"Really? Why?"

"Cause if you don't, there'll be none leftover!"

Kurt can automatically assume that Sonic will probably take up all of the rest of the chili dogs on the plate, though he can't really understand how he'd be able to finish all of those in one sitting. "Okay…" He says, deciding to be polite and take up Sonic's offer and take the first chili dog for himself. He stares at it for a minute to take in its design. The food item in his hands in rather messy, with chili trails going down the side from earlier, leaving him less chili than before, but that's okay with Kurt, since the dog is still loaded with it anyway. There seems to be some type of shredded cheese on top of the chili, slowly melting into the fine condiment. The hot dog itself is still steaming a little, and the bun is nice and warm in Kurt's hand.

Not wanting to waste any more of Sonic's time, Kurt opens his mouth and takes a bite, taking his time to savor the taste that tickles his tongue. The spiciness of the chili is not entirely his favorite thing about it, but the texture it holds still somewhat appeals to him, added with the addition of the melted cheese and the meat below, making him want to go in for more. However, Sonic is looking on in anticipation, so Kurt feels like it would be best to answer instead, being careful not to burn his mouth as he swallows. "Hmm…" He debates. "…It's pretty good."

Sonic seems to be a little surprised by this, but he remembers that Kurt has never had a chili-dog before, a fact that still bothers him a little, but he doesn't take it personally. "Glad you like it! There's more if you'd like seconds!"

But Kurt isn't so sure he really wants to right now. "It's very filling, and I don't think I have a large stomach for more than one."

"Hmph…" Sonic seems disappointed a little, before putting on a mischievous smile. "Well, we're gonna have to fix that!"

Kurt now seems startled by this response. "Wait…what?"

"Well, not right now, of course! Things like this can't be rushed! You've got to build it up over time!"

"Build what?"

"Your stomach capacity, of course!"

"Oh, right..."

A good minute of silence passes between the two, as Kurt and Sonic have quietly been eating their meals (or at least Kurt does), with the latter having much more than the former. Soon, Sonic decides to speak up. "So Kurt, where are you from?"

Kurt thinks for a little while on it before coming to the conclusion that it would probably be safe to be a little honest with Sonic. "Well, I'm usually somewhat nomadic. I've traveled for most of my life, but the last place I came from was Metal City. I had been living there for, uh…three years, I think…?"

Sonic, with a sparkle glowing in his eyes, seems to be excited to hear this news. "Oh cool, Metal City? I think I remember competing in an EG race or two there before!"

"Really? I guess that I never took notice, I'm not really an EG guy."

"Huh…So what _did_ you do there anyway?"

"Well, uh…how do I describe it…?" Kurt never really knew what exactly his job title was with the police in Metal City, he only did as he was told, so he has to explain the job instead. "…I guess you could say that I worked part-time with the police force over there, assisting them on cases from time to time."

"Heh, a crime-fighter, huh? Just like me!"

"Eh…in a sense."

"So did you have any family over in Metal City?"

Kurt becomes tense in his seat, crossing his feet and holding a hand to his other arm. "Err…no, I didn't have any family there…"

Sonic can read Kurt's body language and guess that he is rather uncomfortable, so he leads the conversation back to where they left off. "Well, you said that you worked with the police there. What kind of work did you do?"

Kurt soon reestablishes himself and continues on, not wanting to be rude by neglecting his question. "Well, it varied from time to time. On occasion I was asked to fill out paperwork on cases I was dragged into. My specialty, however, was working in the field. I did well doing some detective work, picking out clues and evidence that the others couldn't see, like a sweeper. Most of my work was undercover work where they needed my street smarts to allow me to try and gather intelligence while incognito."

"Street smarts, eh?"

"I kind of grew up in the ghetto, you can say, so I know how things work on the streets. Sometimes, there would even be times I would be called in if they needed to take down high priority targets or escape-artists."

Sonic gives a sharp whistle. "That's way past cool! Sounds like you were a big deal over there!"

"Thanks."

"One question. If you were so good at your job and you liked it, why did you leave?"

And once more, Kurt is faced with a situation where he has to cover up the truth. "Well, err…" He mutters, once again tense and nervous, thinking through how to word it out without revealing too much. "…one case was a bit too…personal to me, and I couldn't risk getting involved."

Sonic, seeing how sensitive Kurt seems to act, understands that Kurt has some issues that he doesn't want revealed. "Alright, sorry, I'll back off."

"But don't worry about that." Kurt answers after a second of silence. "I'll be fine once I can find something here."

"Alright then. Hmm…if you're looking for a job in detective work or something like that, I could always call up my friends from the Chaotix and see if they'll offer you a spot on the team, though it may not be likely…"

"The Chaotix? Who are they?"

"They're a detective agency here in Station Square. The three of them are good friends of mine, so I could get you a recommendation of sorts."

"Thanks Sonic. That would be nice." Kurt replies with kindness. Then, he remembers something that Sonic had said before. "Wait, why did you say that it may not be likely that they will hire?"

"Well-" Sonic begins to say, but is interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing, along with a clear "Sonic, I'm home!" And in through the door walks a small, yellow fox with goggles on his head and a toolbox in hand. His head has three distinct bangs, a little smaller than Kurt's, and behind the fox twirls _two_ tails, something that Kurt finds himself having to do a double-take on.

"Hey Tails!" Sonic seems high-spirited at seeing his friend again. "How are things hanging?"

"Oh, they're hanging, alright…" Tails huffs with an edge of sarcasm.

"Heh, that kinda day, huh?"

"Oh, you have no idea." Tails begins to rant. "It's like they all depend on me to take care of _their own jobs_!"

"You know you can just say 'no,' right buddy?"

"Apparently, they don't take 'no' as an answer very well. Besides, the wiring was all wrong and the wrong parts were in the wrong places. It bothered me to no end, so naturally, I had to fix it."

"Geez, Tails! Why don't you grab some ice cream and _chill_ , pun entirely intended?"

"Eh, I guess that I could use some ice cream right about now." Tails puts his toolbox down by the basement door and turns to proceed to the kitchen when he takes notice of Kurt in the chair. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Tails greets Kurt at last. "Have you been here this whole time?"

"Oh, I didn't introduce you!" Sonic face-palms himself at the realization that Tails and Kurt have never met and he didn't introduce the two in the first place. He pulls Kurt up from the couch and brings him over to Tails. "Kurt, this is Tails!"

 _A fox with two tails?_ Kurt asks himself. _Wait, maybe he's a kitsune. Either way, the name sure fits._

"Tails," Sonic continues, "this is my new friend Kurt! I met him while on my run this morning sleeping on the side of the highway. He said he was headed for Station Square, so I gave him a lift!"

Tails has a look of confusion in his face as he looks back at Sonic, silently asking why he would do such a thing. Kurt, upon seeing this face, can't help but agree at the thought, as it does sound very strange in concept. "…oookay." Tails finally says, before turning to Kurt and holds out his hand. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Kurt!"

"Likewise." Kurt answers shyly, meeting Tails' hand to shake.

"Forgive me, but I can't help but wonder…why you were sleeping on the side of the highway?"

"Eh, I was walking from Metal City, but I couldn't afford a cab." Kurt answers, not wanting to embarrass himself more by saying that he decided to forgo a lift.

Sonic seems upset by this. "Why couldn't you afford a cab?"

"Err…because I don't have that much money on me…?" Kurt twiddles his fingers as his muzzle slightly blushes in embarrassment. He knows that he probably had enough money from the last payment he received, but Sonic doesn't need to.

Sonic doesn't seem too happy to hear Kurt's false story, but lets it slide. He turns his attention back over to Tails. "So what did you have to do overnight, Tails?"

"Oh, the usual." He replies calmly but blandly, proceeding to tell about his night out. "G.U.N. called me in to check up on their computer servers, make sure everything is up to date and running like clockwork, though not as good as what I've got. That's a secret that stays with me. I also did some repairs of their aircraft. I swear, their technician's work is so sloppy, it makes me cringe sometimes."

Sonic gets Kurt's attention and says, "Yeah, Tails is somewhat of a perfectionist."

"I see." Kurt agrees with his observation. "But what exactly is it that you do, Tails? Are you a technician, engineer, mechanic, what?"

"All of the above!" He answers with a smile. "It's my hobby to tinker with anything I can get my hands on and see what I can make out of it! I've even got a workshop where I build everything in! Come on, I'll show you all of the neat stuff I've built!" Tails takes Kurt's hand and pulls him along to the basement in a hurry. Kurt, obviously not wanting to but not saying anything, looks back at Sonic with a pleading look, but Sonic's wink and smile answers Kurt's plea with a look that says he's on his own for this one.

* * *

For what seems like hours, Kurt is pulled through various different types of inventions that only seem to bore him and put him to sleep. The only ones he seems to catch are some kind of radar and a sketchbook Tails has to discover the theory of Mobian flight, or at least in his case because of his tails.

 _Chaos, how does Sonic put up with this?_ Kurt asks himself, almost ready to doze off before being dragged off again. This time, they enter a large room that turns out to be a hangar.

"And finally, there's my pride and joy, the Tornado!" Tails exclaims as he hits the lights.

When Kurt looks up, he is surprised to see a small-sized propeller plane with two available seats in the cockpit and a blue and yellow paint scheme. On the side is a circular emblem with two tails on it, signifying it as Tails' plane.

"Whoa, you actually fly this thing?!" Kurt asks in astonishment.

"Uh-huh, I sure do!" Tails admits with pride.

That is before Sonic walks in. "Yeah, but he wouldn't be flying it if it weren't for me! _His_ pride and joy? Hah!"

"Wait, what?" Kurt is confused by all of this back and forth stuff. "How would Tails not be flying it if not for you?"

"Well, the plane actually used to belong to me." Sonic boasts.

"You don't mean to say that _you_ used to fly this thing, as a _kid_ no less, do you?"

"Right on, Kurt! I used to fly this baby all the time! Anywhere I couldn't reach on foot, she's been there for me!"

Kurt just seems too astonished for words, so Sonic can predict his expression. "Stunned?"

"I suppose, yeah!"

"Heh, I'm glad I had her, too, since she's the main reason how I came to meet Tails in the first place!"

"Really?"

"Oh yeah!" Sonic recalls. "I still remember it like it was yesterday…"

* * *

-*FIRST PERSON: SONIC'S POV*-

* * *

It was just a normal day over on Westside Island, I was doing my usual dig, running and exploring the world! The island breezes felt fantastic that time of year as well. Oh, the naps I would take there were... _hah_ ~ _;_ the environment was so peaceful, the temperature right where I liked it, it was like paradise. Though I remember that every time I listened, I thought I heard a rustling in the bushes. Every time I looked, there was nothing there, so I shrugged it off and kept on running.

One day, however, I heard something different, like the sound of whirring or something like that. When I looked back, I saw this little kid propelling himself forward with his two tails. Now normally, I don't usually pay close attention to these kind of things, but what caught my attention was the fact that he was able to keep up with me. I thought that it was pretty cool that there could be someone fast like me, or at least someone kind of close.

I was sleeping on the beach one day when I thought I heard the sound of metal against metal, so I turn to the plane behind me and I see that same fox kid from before, tinkering away inside of my plane. My plane used to be the color red, but this kid was in the middle of repainting it to blue, the same as my fur color. When I noticed, I got intrigued by what he was doing, so I got up from where I stood and walked over. "What do ya think you're doing?" I asked the fox, who nearly jumped out of his fur, surprised to see that I was awake.

Rather sheepishly, he hops out of the plane and rubs the back of his head with a shy smile. "Sorry, but when I see a machine, I can't help myself! I hope you don't mind that I changed the engine to make it faster."

"Hmm…I like what you did with the color, too." I complimented his work with a smile.

This seems to make him rather pleased with himself. "Come and see what else I did!"

I moved forward more to examine the inside of the plane. I could hardly count the amount of switches by the gauge anymore, and all of the hardware looked brand new. I had been meaning to get the Tornado taken in for a check-up, but it seemed like this kid did the job for me. "So, you've been following me around to check out my airplane, or is there something else you want?" I asked him out of curiosity, wanting to know why he would do such a thing.

"Well, you see…" He explained his a hand behind his head again, looking away from me almost as if he were ashamed. "I like to build and repair stuff, so everyone makes fun of me." He looked up to me again. "You looked cool, so I followed you, and when I found your plane, I figured I'd fix it up and we could be friends! Well, if you want to…"

Already, this kid had my interest, so I thought I'd entertain him a little. "Well, what's your name, pal?" I asked him, since I still didn't know his name at the time.

"Miles Prower." He answers instantly, but remembering something. "Uh, but my friends call me Tails."

"My name's Sonic." I tell him. "Nice job Tails! I could use a mechanic, and a friend!"

He seemed surprised by my offer. "You mean that?!" Tails asked me for confirmation.

With a smirk and a thumbs up, I told him, "You bet!"

* * *

-*THIRD PERSON*-

* * *

"So we stuck by each other for a long time," Sonic concludes, "and now, here we are, still best buddies; he's like my little bro!"

"Wow, that's pretty neat!" Kurt seems intrigued by how these two best of friends seemed to meet.

"Speaking of family," now Tails uses the 'F' bomb this time, "what about yours, Kurt?"

Kurt, now completely removed from where they are, tenses up and looks away while holding his arm. Sonic catches this and comes to his defense. "Oh, I forgot to mention, Tails," Sonic tells him softly, "but he's really sensitive to the whole 'family' thing, he doesn't like to talk about it."

"Oh, okay. But has he told you?"

"Nope, but he's made it clear that it's a threshold not to be crossed."

"Heh, look at you, Sonic, using big words!" Tails teases Sonic with a bit of banter.

Sonic huffs at the remark. "Excuse me? Are you trying to insult me, little kid?"

"Well, for someone with a higher I.Q. than you, I feel that I have the right to." Tails answers, smiling rather cheekily, and acting too cheeky for his own good.

"Oh, we'll see about that!" Sonic grabs Tails and puts him into a headlock, ruffling the top of Tails's head with his fist, both laughing at one another. Even Kurt can't help but chuckle a little at the act of brotherly love.

 _Just like me and Edmund used to be…_ Kurt can't help but reminisce, choosing not to be bothered by it this time.

* * *

Sometime later, Kurt, Sonic, and Tails are all back upstairs, settling to doing various kinds of things, with Kurt looking out the window to the sea to watch the waves crashing against the shore, Tails tinkering with some small gadget in his hands, and Sonic pondering to himself. Sonic soon breaks the silence by speaking to Kurt. "So Kurt, I've just been thinking about something for a little while…"

"Hmm?" Kurt's attention is drawn away from the window and instead pulled to the other hedgehog.

"You said that you wanted to get settled in Station Square, right?" He asks, and when he receives a nod, he continues. "Just curious, do you have anyone you can stay with here? You didn't say anything about that."

Kurt thinks for a second. When he comes up blank, he shakes his head, figuring that he'll figure something out on the streets, not something that Sonic would find out about. Sonic likes this answer. "Well then, I've come to a decision!"

"About what?" Kurt seems confused by this statement, as does Tails as he looks up from what he is working on to listen in on what's going on.

"You're going to stay here with us, Kurt!"

" _W_ _hat_?!" Kurt and Tails are both astonished by this brash statement, with stunned looks on their faces.

Tails approaches Sonic to question his motives. "Are you sure about this, Sonic? I mean you only just met him this morning after all!"

 _Not to mention that I held a gun to your head earlier today!_ Kurt mentally adds.

"You bet!" Sonic seems confident in his decision. "I don't know what it is about you, Kurt, but something tells me that you can be trusted, and I'm starting to warm up to you, so I will!"

Both Kurt and Tails take a glance at each other, both bewildered by what is happening, before looking back at Sonic. "Seriously?" Kurt asks once more.

"Totally!" Sonic answers confidently with a smile. "It may just be a gut feeling, but it's a strong one, and I'm sure everything will be fine! What do you think, Tails?"

Tails, despite his doubt in Sonic's decision, still thinks it over for a minute.

"Well, despite rational thinking, if Sonic trusts you, then I will, too! I'm fine with you staying here, if that's what you choose to do, of course."

Kurt is still stunned by the offer Sonic has made, and it only grows more at the realization that Tails agrees with him. No one has ever offered this kind of kindness to him, but then again, Kurt has never been offered this kind of deal since no one ever bothered to ask him about his living conditions. No one has ever offered Kurt a place to stay in his entire life, let alone a world hero. He can't seem to understand how Sonic can trust him so much that he'd be willing to let a complete stranger into his own home and reside there.

 _Maybe it's his 'gut feeling' he was talking about?_ _I_ _t's so strange…can someone really find trust in another so quick? I mean, I never did intend on doing any wrong to him, so can he just tell that about me or something? I'm just so confused!_

He looks over to Sonic and Tails, who both look back at him and await his answer.

 _Should I take Sonic's offer?_ _I mean, I could still make my way off of the streets._

After a second, he mentally head slaps himself at the thought.

 _Wait a minute, what am I thinking?! I'm actually being offered a chance to avoid all of that hell, to stay under a warm shelter and probably given_ _food! This has never happened to me before, and given his rep, maybe I should take advantage of what is being given to me for once._

Suddenly feeling his jacket, Kurt remembers that he still has his firearm at his side, and he is certain that Sonic will have some ground rules about that. "…Would I still be able to keep my Glock?"

Tails is stunned by this question, now realizing that their guest is armed.

"Sure," Sonic answers, "just don't expect me to use it."

Kurt merely nods to this remark, thinking a little more about it now. He examines his situation carefully. He is being offered a place to stay until he can get situated, which means a couch to rest on, food and getting cleaned in a shower. As a bonus, he gets to keep his Glock with him, all with seemingly no repercussions. Satisfied with his conditions, he looks back to Sonic and nods in confirmation. "Alright, I'll take your offer."

Sonic seems to be ecstatic to hear this, his emerald eyes lighting up and his smile growing wider every second. "Awesome!" He shouts with joy. "Now it's gonna be a real party!" And with that, Sonic heads on upstairs, as to what he is doing neither of the other two know, but they are certainly taken by surprise by the cheery nature that emanates off of the blue hedgehog as he leaves.

"Well, he sure seems excited about this for some reason…" Tails mutters with curiosity.

"Seems like it." Kurt answers, assuming Tails was talking to him indirectly. "By the way, thank you for allowing me to stay in your home for the moment. I promise that I won't be a nuisance."

Tails laughs at this promise as if it's child's play. "Oh, trust me, you haven't seen a nuisance until you've spent the night with Sonic."

"Is it bad?"

"Not really, but it can annoy the others occasionally. It's mostly just teasing, but he doesn't really mean any harm other than playing around with his friends a little. I've merely grown used to it after being with him for so long."

* * *

Later that day, the sun has finally set, and the trio agree on having pasta for dinner. Sonic prepares the meal while the others go about their own business, mainly Tails just tinkering some more and Kurt reflecting. Once dinner is ready, Sonic calls them to the table and they all dig in. The pasta has been cooked just right, and the sauce added gives it that touch that makes Kurt's taste buds squeal with delight. Soon, Tails interrupts Kurt's thoughts.

"So do you really carry a Glock on you, Kurt?" Tails now asks the big question that's been bugging him for the last few hours.

"Uh, yeah I do." He answers honestly, opening his jacket to reveal his concealed customized weapon. "I used to work for the police in Metal City, and I also got a license to carry a concealed weapon, but I would never use it unless I had to in self-defense."

"Can I take a look at it really quick? I'll give it back right away."

"Uh, sure." Kurt says, hesitantly taking his gun out and handing Tails the handle, which he grabs as he begins to inspect the weapon.

"Heh, nice manners, Kurt." Sonic finally speaks up.

"Uh, thanks?" Kurt says, not quite sure how to respond to that, sensing something similar to sarcasm laced in his words.

"Those are some interesting modifications to your Glock." Tails notices Kurt's unique gun, intrigued by his choice of equipping a holographic sight to the top of his weapon.

"Thanks." Kurt answers immediately as Tails returns the weapon to its rightful owner. Soon, Kurt's curiosity has now reached a peak. There has been something on his mind since arriving here earlier today, and he needs an answer from Sonic. "Hey Sonic..."

"Hmm?" Sonic's mouth is still filled with pasta, with some strands hanging from his mouth, so he slurps them up and swallows the mass of food down. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering, why did you bring me here earlier today anyway? All I told you was that I was heading for Station Square, and you still brought me here."

"Hmm..." Sonic begins to scratch his chin in thought, as apparently he hasn't thought much about this either. Cue Kurt's sweatdrop. "I wanted to help you out, but I didn't want to have to drag you along while I did errands. I mean, if you had just met me on the side of the highway, would you ask me to accompany you while you got food for the house?"

"Err, I guess not..."

Soon enough, everyone has finished everything on their plate, and Sonic proceeds to wash the dishes himself. "Well, I'm heading back down to do some touch-ups to my work and then I'll be turning in." Tails tells them as he heads towards the basement door.

"Alright, now get some _real_ rest tonight, alright?" Sonic instructs him. "You deserve some every now and then, _especially_ tomorrow, so sleep in, take the day off tomorrow, something!"

"Haha, alright, alright!" Tails laughs as he heads on downstairs. "I'll take a break! But only after tonight! Good night Sonic!"

"Night, Tails!" Sonic hollers as Tails shuts the door behind him. Kurt is laying down on the couch, ready to fall asleep when Sonic walks up to him. "So is this where you want to sleep tonight?" He asks innocently.

"Uh…" Kurt answers as he sits up, a little puzzled by Sonic's words, "sorry, did you have something else in mind?"

"Come on, I'll show you where you can stay tonight!" Sonic responds as he pulls Kurt up to his feet and proceeds up the stairs. As soon as he reaches the top, he takes another look around. He had already been up here earlier, but he had gone directly into Sonic's room without looking at the other rooms. On his left, he sees that the door is ajar and leads into a full bathroom, complete with a single vanity and medicine cabinet, a toilet, and a bath shower combo. At the end Kurt already knows is Sonic's room. Sonic opens a door to his right just before there and ushers him in. Kurt steps inside the room, and it is just a normal bedroom, with a full-size bed along the wall closest to the door, a bedside nightstand with a lamp, a chest of drawers along the wall the door connects with, and a closet at the other end of the room. The room seems to be very blue, but it could just be from the light of the night. "You can stay here for the time being." Sonic informs Kurt. "This used to be Tails' room, but he sleeps in the basement now because he wants to be closer to his stuff. If you need anything, let me know. I usually spend the night outside, but I'll stick inside tonight because it's supposed to get cold."

"Alright, thanks Sonic." Kurt answers. "I will."

"Well, see ya in the morning, Kurt!" Sonic bids Kurt good night and heads off to his room, shutting the door softly behind him.

"Yeah…see you in the morning, Sonic…" Kurt says, as he zones out looking at Sonic's door for some time. This is broken by a rather unpleasant smell entering Kurt's nose, and checking himself, he retches. _I never even realized that I smelled_ this _bad! I'd better get washed up, or the smell will keep me up all night!_

So Kurt proceeds to the bathroom, looking in the shower and already seeing some shampoo for hedgehog fur and quills. So he turns the water on to allow it to heat up before he gets in. He takes off his gloves, his boots and his jacket and lays them in the corner of the room before grabbing a towel and flinging it halfway over the curtain rod above. Once the water is steaming, Kurt steps inside the tub, enjoying the feeling of the hot water pouring down onto him. He also finds it quite nice how everything is sized to a Mobian height. He is quick to grab the shampoo bottle and get a bunch of it in his hands, rubbing it together a little before going to work and scrubbing himself. He aims for every nook and cranny to get rid of the dreaded smell that has clung to him over the last few days, painfully removing several snags and knots in his clumped fur. Once he rinses off, he thinks that it might not have been enough because the stench is still in the air, especially with his clear sinuses due to the steam, so he gets some more shampoo and repeats this process once more. Afterwards, he grabs a bar of soap, making sure to wash underneath his armpits good before turning the water off and grabbing his towel to dry off.

As he steps out of the shower, Kurt is pleased to see that the vanity is sized for a Mobian as well, so he doesn't have to climb up onto the counter to view himself in the mirror. He is surprised by what he sees. In the mirror, he sees a hedgehog whose bright, lust fur seems to gleam in the light, one that looks fairly healthy given his small diet. What surprises him is that he realizes that this hedgehog must be himself. His ruffles have even toned down a bit, and are now less noticeable than they were before, though the improvement isn't much. Kurt has never seen himself look this clean or this healthy, so he is surprised to see that this is what he actually looks like. He still rubs at certain parts of his appearance that make him uncomfortable and bring back bad memories.

Kurt brushes his canines with a spare toothbrush and toothpaste in the drawer and then grooms his fur and quills before heading across the hall to the bedroom closest to Sonic's room. Seeing as his bag is already here, he concludes that Sonic must have brought it up here while he was in the shower. He places his jacket on top of the dresser, the same with his gloves, while he places his boots to the side of the bed. He does remember to keep one knife handy on him as well as placing his gun on safety under the pillow. Upon sitting down on the bed, he is overwhelmed by how he seems to sink into the mattress, and he falls asleep nearly as soon as he tucks in and his head touches the pillow.

* * *

 **A/N: OH GOD MISSING DEADLINES AAAAAAAAAAA ToT**

 **I knew that I was going to be packed, but my prediction was an understatement. Exams came and went, other stories threw themselves ahead of this one, sorry it took longer than expected to get this one out! With the holidays arriving, I'm not sure if it'll be any easier to get these chapters done, but I am going to try harder to get these out.**

 **Ugh, this one took a bit of time to write up, and even still there were parts cut and added, but it's finally here, and so is your favorite blue hedgehog! Plus this puppy's just short of being 11k words long...:P**

 **That one scene where Sonic acts like a drama queen, I like to imagine him sounding like Jason Griffith's voice for Cilan because it just feels right :)**

 **Although not required, I would appreciate it if you left a review and told me what you think on this story so far, it really does make my day to receive feedback on my work. This is likely going to be the last update of the year, so I guess I'll catch ya in the new year, new chapter!**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What :**

 **It's someone's special day,**

 **and Kurt meets more of Sonic's friends...**


	4. Not a Dream

Chapter Three: Not a Dream

Upon opening his eyes, all Kurt can catch is a harsh light before squeezing his eyes shut again to block it out. He lets out a loud yawn as he realizes that he's now awake. He can still recall the details of his recent memories.

 _Ugh…wow, that was a crazy dream!_ _Spending the day with Sonic the Hedgehog! I never imagined he would look like that. Anyway, I suppose my day goes back to normal now...back to dumpster-diving. Tough life, but I'll manage. I always do. Although I really don't feel like getting up right now, because this is some soft surface I'm lying on, much cozier than my mattress pad. Kinda makes me think of a…_ bed _…?_

He opens his eyes once more, and after adjusting to the light, he can see that he is in fact in a full-size bed in a light blue colored room. He sees his boots off to the side of the bed, and his jacket is up on top of a dresser with his gloves. Light is pouring in through the windows to his left, where he can hear the sound of waves crashing against a rocky shore, white water splashing into the sky before returning to the earth once more. Kurt can also hear the sound of seagulls in the distance, so he knows that he is near the ocean. Then suddenly, it hits him as he sits up.

 _Holy Chaos, that_ wasn't _a dream after all!_ Kurt realizes. _I'm in Sonic the Hedgehog's house! It was all real!_

He is in a complete state of astonishment, unsure of how to react to his new situation. He _did_ meet Sonic the Hedgehog, he is in Sonic's _home_ , _and_ he has offered him a place to stay so that he can get situated in the city! Kurt is certain that anyone might have killed to be in the spot that he is in now. However, before he can continue to awe at his situation, an interesting aroma tickles Kurt's nose.

 _Hmm, it smells like someone's cooking._

Not wasting any time, he gets up from the bed, puts on his clothes, makes sure his weapons are in their proper places, and heads on downstairs. Upon arriving on the ground floor, he sees Sonic in the kitchen, whistling a tune that has been in his head for some time as he cooks eggs and bacon on the stove. Sonic notices the sound of boots walking into the room, so he looks back to notice Kurt, smiling at his arrival and responding with a "Morning, buddy!"

"Morning, Sonic…" Kurt mumbles as he fails to stifle a yawn while speaking, making it sound almost unintelligible as he covers his mouth.

"Sleep well last night? I've heard legends about that bed!"

"Oh no, no, it was great. It was the best rest I've had in a while." He neglects to add an "If not ever!" at the end of this sentence.

"Oh, well cool!" Sonic exclaims, turning back to the breakfast in front of him. "How do you like your eggs cooked?"

"Scrambled, please." Kurt rests his lower back against the counter rather than sitting down in a chair.

"Alrighty then!" Sonic replies, continuing his whistling and humming from earlier.

Kurt is intrigued by how upbeat Sonic seems to be acting, even though it is only seven in the morning, the sun only rose about an hour prior. "You certainly seem peppy this morning. Is there something going on I don't know about or are you always like this in the morning?"

"Well, today's just a _very_ special day!"

Kurt is rather confused by what Sonic has said, as he doesn't know of any significance of the current date other than that it's oddly warm for February. He assumes that it must be something related to him and his friends that is important.

 _Just roll with it, Kurt._ He tells himself. _Pretend like you know what he's talking about._ "Alright, cool." But before he can look away, he sees the bacon in the pan sizzling, but he can tell that it needs to be flipped or else it could end up scorching, and Sonic is neglecting to check on them at the moment. He gets up from his spot and rushes over to flip them with the tongs. Sonic is taken by surprise, not expecting Kurt to act so suddenly. "Sorry," Kurt apologizes, "it's just that the bacon needed to be flipped."

"So I take it that you're a culinary expert, huh?" Sonic says in a slight targeting tone with one hand at his hip and another leaning against the counter. Kurt laughs at this question.

"Not even close. But I'm not new to the scene, I've cooked a few things before, bacon being one of them." Afterwards, Kurt leaves Sonic so that he can continue cooking, taking a place at the table. Soon enough, everything is ready, and Sonic adds the last few touches to the eggs before giving Kurt a plate filled with scrambled eggs and a few pieces of bacon. He thanks Sonic for cooking breakfast and almost starts to dig in, but then remembers something, or rather someone, important that is missing. "Where's Tails?" Kurt asks Sonic as he sits down next to him with a plate of his own. "Shouldn't he be eating with us?"

"Nah, I decided to let the little squirt sleep in. He's been working hard lately." And the topic ends there. The silence continues to roam the kitchen, only interrupted by the sound of the two opposite colored hedgehogs feasting on their breakfast together. Soon enough, they both finish their meals and Sonic goes ahead and puts the plates in the sink.

"Ah!" Sonic pats his belly and stretches his back. "Alright, time to get moving! I'm gonna head out for a run, but I'll be back before anybody shows up!"

"Huh-?" Before Kurt can even ask what he means by 'anybody', Sonic has already dashed out of the house and is long gone, leaving Kurt rather confused. "He really does that a lot..." Kurt notes, rather annoyed by how often Sonic seems to run off before he can say anything.

 _I wonder what that was about though. "Before anybody shows up"? Does that mean that someone's coming over today?_

Suddenly becoming self-conscious of his appearance, he walks over to a mirror that is hanging on the wall in the hall. He checks his fur to make sure that it doesn't look too frizzy, rubbing his quills down to allow them to be straight once more. Overall, he is satisfied with his appearance.

 _I suppose that I look decent enough to be presentable to others._ _I mean, my quills aren't too ruffled, not more than they usually are. In fact, they look better than they have in some time._

Walking back into the living room, Kurt grabs the paper that is hanging in the opening between this room and the kitchen and settles down into the sofa chair and begins to read, but realizing that all he sees on the paper are black blurs. And he remembers. "Ugh, glasses…kinda need those…"

Kurt's eyesight is rather fixed, and so he cannot view things from up close very well, so through his work, he was able to get a prescription pair of glasses at no charge to him so that he will be able to read and write up close. He is still trying to get used to reading, as he is not the most literate hedgehog on the planet. Kurt did not attend school as a child, so he missed out on many learning opportunities, such as how to read and write. Kurt only taught himself in recent years how to do so in order to keep up the idea that he knows what he is doing at work so people don't suspect anything. He certainly got some funny looks from his childlike handwriting, but they just shrug it off as just his bad eyesight for so long, but it is the reason why Kurt prefers to stick to typing rather than writing. Kurt goes upstairs and takes his glasses out of their case in his bag, walking back downstairs and resettles in the chair. He puts his glasses on and picks up the paper in order to begin reading once again, now able to read the text before him.

 _Hmm…_ Kurt seems disappointed by what he sees. _Wonderful,_ _all they ever talk about these days are dirty politics. I thought I could escape that when I left Metal City, but apparently not. Oh, who am I kidding, this whole world's corrupt._

Kurt has a strong opinion on politics: it is corrupt and a pain in the ass, as no one in an elected position is either unable or they choose not to take a bipartisan view with another and agree on the solution to everyday problems, so the less that he is involved with the subject, the happier he will be.

He is taken by surprise when he hears a knock at the front door. He remembers what Sonic had said before he left, also realizing that he must have failed that tiny promise of returning before anyone shows up...great. Kurt figures that it must be one of his friends at the door.

 _Should I answer it?_ _I mean, I'm not Sonic, so whoever is at the door would probably be surprised to see me instead of him. Eh, I guess that I could mention that I'm just staying here momentarily and that Sonic's out at the moment. It shouldn't go too bad, right?_

As soon as he opens the door, he learns that he is very wrong, as a loud voice cries "SONICCC!" in a high-pitched voice right in his ears, and he is instantly tackled to the ground in a tight bear hug, losing all of the air in his lungs from how tightly the girl seems to be squeezing him. All Kurt can see is flashes of pink that remind him of the pink hedgehog girl in the pictures on the wall as he tries to free himself from her grasp, but to no avail. "Oh Sonic, it's so good to see you again!" The girl cheers excitedly. "I've missed you so much!"

Kurt, currently trying not to die of suffocation, gags as he tries to get her to release him. "Please…let…go…" He utters painfully. "Can't…breathe…!"

"Oh, sorry Sonic!" The girl seems to come to her senses, finally letting go of Kurt as he collapses back on the floor, gasping for as much air as his lungs can take. "It's just that it's been awhile sinc-" That is the moment where she finally notices that the hedgehog of her dreams is not the one below him, but is instead another hedgehog, one with a fur color not too far off from her own, and she instantly blushes in embarrassment. "Oh my goodness!" She gasps. "I am so sorry, sir! It was dark in here, so I couldn't tell who you were; I thought that you were Sonic!"

But based on that death grip he received and how much different he is than Sonic (at least in his mind), Kurt gets the feeling that this isn't the first time that this has happened. "Oh no, it's fine." He finally manages to speak as he picks himself up off of the ground, still breathing a little heavy. "Don't worry about it."

"Hey, wait just a minute!" The girl's attitude seems to do a rapid turnaround, from being apologetic to antagonizing, suddenly summoning a large hammer _from out of nowhere_. "Just _who_ are you and _what_ are you doing in _my_ Sonic's house?!"

Your _Sonic's house?_ Kurt thinks this to himself, debating whether or not this psycho is really his girlfriend, but he does not say this aloud as he is absolutely terrified by the giant hammer looming above him. Kurt cannot help but feel pathetic in this moment. He has taken down crime bosses and brutes much larger than her without a second thought, and yet here he is, paralyzed in fear at a little girl and rather oversized workshop tool that looks like it hammers hedgehogs into the ground like spikes. He begins to panic and stutter as he tries to find words that will work together to save his ass. "I-ah…uh…I-I can explain-"

"Geez, you guys know how to make a racket." A tired voice seems to interrupt them. They both turn around and see Tails leaning against the opening to the kitchen with a cup of coffee in hand. That alone surprises Kurt, as he doesn't understand why a kid at his age would be drinking coffee this early in life. Instantly, the girl's anger seems to disappear and is replaced by the glee that Kurt was greeted to only a few seconds ago, as she runs over to Tails and gives him a big hug as well, lifting him off the ground a little.

"Oh, good morning, Tails!" The girl squeals. "Happy birthday!"

"Thanks Amy." Tails says much quieter than her. "But can you tone it down some, I just woke up and I have had only one sip of my coffee."

The golden light of understanding finally dawns on Kurt. _So_ that's _what's going on, it's Tails' birthday!_ _Now it makes sense as to why Sonic was so peppy this morning! But why didn't he just say so? Ah well, at least I figured it out eventually._

"But Tails, what's going on here?" Amy asks, referring to the other hedgehog before them that is _not_ Sonic. "Who is this guy?"

"This is Kurt, Amy." Tails explains to her. "Sonic brought him by yesterday after meeting him on the side of the highway out in the wastelands." And once more, Kurt witnesses a look on Amy face that he has already seen from Tails. "Yeah, I know, I felt the same way at first, but Sonic seems to trust him enough, so he decided to allow Kurt to spend the night here."

Amy seems puzzled by this logic that Sonic has absently presented to her. "Hmm…that does sound rather sketchy, but oh, this is Sonic's judgement we're talking about here! I'm sure that he was just making a kind-hearted decision right from the bottom of his heart to help out someone in need!"

 _I'm not in_ that _bad of shape!_ Kurt grumbles to himself, slightly offended by Amy's remarks.

"I'm sorry for not letting you explain earlier, Kurt!" Amy finally apologizes to Kurt, which catches his attention. "I should have known that you were a guest of Sonic's!"

"Oh, it's alright." Kurt decides to give her the benefit of the doubt and forgive her, since she didn't really know anyway. "I honestly don't blame you for thinking that. Even I was surprised by his offer."

"So why _are_ you here anyway, Kurt?"

"Well, I'm just looking for a fresh start in a new place, and I chose to head to Station Square when someone suggested it to me, and Sonic met me on the way and brought me here. And since I really don't have the means to find a place to live yet, Sonic's offered me a place to stay until I can get myself situated."

"Oh, that's my darling Sonic, always putting others before himself!" Amy states, now blanking out dreamily with stars in her eyes as she thinks about her and Sonic together. Kurt, for a reason unknown to him, feels the urge to retch.

* * *

It wasn't long for something new to happen. Kurt engages in conversation with Amy since he can't go back to reading his paper because Amy won't stop talking to him. He doesn't exactly know what she is saying because he isn't paying attention, but he pretends to in order to make her happy, just a few simple nods and saying "sure" every now and then. Soon, the door knocks again, and when the door opens, a pair of female rabbits walk in, one much larger and more mature looking, and the other rather child-like, and a little blue figure with a cute red bow-tie is floating around the smaller of the rabbits.

The smaller girl notices Kurt right away, and with a big smile, she walks up to him, acting rather sweet. "Oh, hello there!" She greets him with a cheerful, friendly, high-pitched voice. "Are you a friend of Mister Sonic as well?"

Just feeling the aura that this little girl is radiating fills Kurt with happiness as he smiles back at her. "Why, I suppose so. My name is Kurt. What's yours?"

"My name is Cream, and this is my mama!" She points to the larger of the two rabbits, who also approaches him with a smile on her face with her crossed hands in front.

"Hello, Kurt." Cream's mother greets him as well. "I'm Vanilla. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you too, ma'am." Kurt answers politely, though all etiquette goes to hell when he suddenly feels something touch his head quills where he can't see. He turns around with a hand touching his Glock in his jacket, but he stops when he sees the floating blue figure from before, looking rather sad. Kurt wonders if it might have hurt itself by touching one of his quills the wrong way.

"That's Cheese, and he's my Chao friend!" Cream explains to Kurt, which only confuses him further.

"A Chao?" Kurt examines the tiny floating ball-shaped body, having never seen a Chao before. Sure, he has read about them, but the sources weren't exactly child-friendly picture books, so he could only use his imagination to get an idea of what they look like.

"It looks like he wants to play with your quills, Mister Kurt!" Cream notices, and when Kurt looks up to Cheese, the Chao nods in confirmation, hiding his face behind his nubby hands. Kurt is unsure whether or not he should loosen up his raised quills, as he does not know what the little Chao might do to him if he allows that. That's when he feels a hand on his shoulder, he turns to see Vanilla, giving a calm smile.

"It's alright, sweetie." Vanilla reassures him. "Chao are perfectly harmless."

There is something about this elderly rabbit that gives Kurt such a strong sensation of trust, and that everything will be alright if that is what she says. It has been a long time since he has felt this feeling, having forgotten what it feels like to trust since he was much younger until one woman came along into his life and reminded him that not everyone in the world is bad, a belief that has stood the test of time in the farthest reaches of his mind thanks to his rather unpleasant upbringing. It is a feeling of familiarity, like a long lost friend has finally come back after moving away a long time ago and things can pick up where they left off.

This feeling is amplified tenfold when it comes to Cream. He has always had a fondness for rabbits. When he sees her, so positive and with such a bright smile on her face, he is reminded of a time long ago when he felt like he was the only person in the world that cared about his own life, and a tiny rabbit not much younger than Cream came up to him and decided to be his friend, the first friend he ever had. She meant the world to him, and Kurt sees this young rabbit in Cream, as if the two could have been the same person.

If these two say that this Chao is friendly and won't hurt him, who is he to say no to them? He smiles and nods. "Alright, if that's what he wants." Kurt says as he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, becoming as relaxed as he can, something he has not done in a long time, but he remembers how he did it for whenever he was with his brother long ago. As he relaxes, his quills become less tense and not so sharp, able to bend fairly easily. "There ya go, little guy."

"Chao chao!" Cheese instantly cheers as he immediately dives headlong into Kurt's quills, digging through them as if he were swimming in a pool. The others begin laughing at the sight, but all Kurt does is whine every time the Chao tugs lightly on some of his quills.

"Ow, ow!" He cries before turning to a more playful tone. "Oh, so they're harmless, you say? Well _he_ certainly likes to play a little rough!"

At this remark, everyone laughs a little harder, and this time, Kurt joins in with them. He certainly is having a fun time. In fact, he cannot remember the last time he has had this much fun, so he guesses that maybe he never has and relishes the moment.

Kurt is so preoccupied with Cheese and Cream that he doesn't notice the door open once more, and in walks an echidna with a similar fur color to his own. His key feature of identification are his boxer-like gloves, which are sported with spikes on his knuckles. Tails notices this appearance, and he lights up. "Knuckles!" He calls out happily. "I can't believe you made it!"

"Yeah, I didn't expect to." The echidna named Knuckles responds. "I just made arrangements for someone I trust to watch over the Master Emerald while I come down here."

"Well I'm glad that you could make it!"

"Sure thing, kiddo…" Knuckles trails off, taking notice of the party around him. He sees that Amy has arrived already, which is a no brainer, and so has Cream and her mother. He notices a lack of blue in the house, which tells him that Sonic is not here right now, but he sees something else that catches his eye. At first he thinks of Sonic since they look very identical figure-wise, but Sonic's fur isn't that messy, nor is it red. Another key feature he notices is that this hedgehog wears a brown leather jacket, something Sonic _never_ does. He turns to Tails for clarity. "Hey, who's the new guy?"

"Who?" Tails asks, which Knuckles answers by pointing at the person he means. "Oh, you mean Kurt! He's a guy that Sonic met yesterday and invited over. He's pretty nice, but he is quite an introvert, kind of like you!"

Knuckles gives Tails a funny look. "He just meets the guy and then decides to invite him to celebrate your birthday?"

"Well, he seems to trust him, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. He doesn't seem like a bad person. Besides, it's not like the first time we met was any better."

Knuckles huffs and looks away, disliking to be reminded of the time that Eggman had tricked him into thinking that Sonic and Tails were coming to the island to take the Master Emerald. He has learned better since then, but that doesn't mean Sonic won't go out of his way to rub it in his face every now and then. It is because of Eggman's trickery that Knuckles has trust issues with new people. Knuckles wants to know just who this newcomer is, so he approaches him with intrigue. "Hey you!"

Kurt picks this up, but he is unsure if the voice is talking to him or not, so he assumes that they are and he turns to face the voice, coming face-to-face with the echidna. "Who, me?"

"You're the only stranger here, you tell me. Tails told me that Sonic brought you here, is that right?"

"Uh…yeah, that's right. I'm not really sure why, but I am thankful he provided me with a place to stay."

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles may speak with a little bit of arrogance in his voice, but everyone knows that he doesn't mean it as much as he'd want you to believe; everyone, that is, except for Kurt, since he has never met Knuckles and his rash behavior before, sensing his hostility. "Tell me, Kurt. What's with the fur? Are you trying to copy me or something?"

"Uh, what?" Kurt is kind of caught off-guard by this question. "Umm…no, this is my natural fur color." Kurt can hear a few gasps of surprise throughout the room.

"Oh really?" Knuckles asks in a tone that suggests that he doesn't believe Kurt. "And just how often does one come across a _red-furred hedgehog_ , huh?"

"Probably as often as a blue furred one, I'd assume." Kurt defends himself, thinking of how Sonic's fur color is rare for hedgehogs, as most hedgehogs are typically variants of brown in color. He is starting to dislike this echidna that seems to attack him for a reason he doesn't know. He wants to counter, but the spikes in the echidna's hands make him think now isn't the best time to get smart.

"Knux, he probably didn't even know you existed." Tails butts in. "Even if he dyed his quills, I doubt it would be to copy you. If anyone, I would assume a hedgehog would try to copy Sonic."

Tails did put up a fair argument there. Though there aren't many hedgehogs around, most of them do not share the same fur as Sonic, and so for those fans of his that want to look like him, they dye their fur to match his own, though they can't complete the look because they don't have the emerald green eyes that are a key trait of Sonic, and colored contacts just don't cut it. Knuckles, no longer seeing Kurt as much of a threat, just shrugs it off and walks away, probably to get something to drink or something. He can be heard mumbling something about it always being hedgehogs before he leaves sight.

Vanilla decides at this moment to approach Kurt once more, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Honey, are you alright?" She asks him kindly, the hedgehog's attention directed to the older rabbit.

"Uh, yes, Miss Vanilla, I'm fine." Kurt responds, remembering to be as polite as possible. "I'm alright." He looks back over to Knuckles in the kitchen. "But is Knuckles always like that?" Kurt asks quietly to anyone who will listen, one of which is Tails.

"Sort of, but not exactly." Tails tells him. "He's just not very trusting of others."

"How so?"

"Well, he grew up on a floating island all by himself for his whole life, left behind to guard a powerful gem known as the Master Emerald. You could say he's somewhat of an introvert."

 _What do you know, we have something in common..._

"And the first person he meets," Tails continues, "convinces him to attack us while he takes the Master Emerald. That's why he has trust issues."

"Mister Kurt, is what you said true?" Cream asks, which leaves Kurt confused as his attention is dragged over to her.

"Is what true?"

"Your fur!" Cream answers, though Kurt misses the question still.

"My fur?"

"Yeah, your fur color!" Amy clarifies for him. "You said that they are naturally red, is that true?"

"Yeah, now that I think about it," Tails adds in, "I'm rather curious too! It's highly rare for a hedgehog to have such a fur color!"

"Oh!" Kurt realizes what they are asking him now. "Well, yeah it's true, this is my natural fur color. I was born like this."

"But what about your chest fur, Kurt?" Tails grows curious once more. "You've got a white belly with the white tuft at the top. I've never heard of a hedgehog with a white belly like that, that's only common with foxes and kitsune like myself!"

"Umm…" Kurt slightly covers up his torso with his jacket by pulling it closer to himself. "Honestly, I've asked myself that same question all of my life. I've got no idea."

"Hmm...maybe it could be some kind of genetic mutation...?"

"Well, why don't you tell us about your family then, Kurt? Maybe that might reveal something!" Amy proceeds to unleash the 'F' bomb, which causes Kurt do use his usual thing whenever it explodes. Unfortunately, no one intervenes, as Tails has forgotten all about how Kurt is sensitive to the topic.

 _Damn you Tails, why did you forget?!_ "Uh-"

But before he can say anything, the door bursts open, and a certain blue hedgehog makes his grand entrance while holding a large cake in his hands. "Hey everyone! Looks like I just made it!"

 _Oh praise Chaos, Sonic, your timing could not have been any more perfect._

"Heh, just like Sonic to be fashionably late as usual." Knuckles huffs with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, it's not my fault that Shadow wanted to have a race!" Sonic defends himself, though the excuse is a rather poor one, as everyone knows that _he_ probably started the race. "Besides, I had to go and pick up the cake as well! Which reminds me, happy birthday, lil' bro!"

He plops the cake on top of the table right in front of Tails, who is surprised by Sonic's gift of kindness.

"Ah shucks, Sonic," Tails blushes the tiniest bit, "you didn't have to-"

"Of course I did!" Sonic argues before Tails can even finish. "You're still a kid, so you've gotta have birthday parties and live like a kid! And besides, I've gotta keep you out of the basement somehow!"

"Ha, and I guess that this is the one day that you could get away with that!"

"You know it, buddy! It's just too bad that the others couldn't make it. Rouge was busy at G.U.N., Shadow…well, you know how he is, and the Chaotix were taking care of the M.E. for ole' Knucklehead over here!" He points behind his shoulder to reference the red echidna standing behind him.

"Hey!" Knuckles complains. "I told you to stop calling me that!"

Sonic only snickers as he cleans out one of his ears with his little finger. "Sorry, what was that? I must have missed that!" Despite all of his strength and willpower to resist, Sonic's playful banter makes Kurt slip out a small chuckle, but he is thankful that it goes unnoticed. *"Now, let the party begin!" Sonic shouts, snapping his fingers in the air, and suddenly, the entire room is filled with music all around them. The culprit of the sound turns out to be speakers placed in each of the top corners of the room. Electronic music blares from the speakers, the bass making Kurt's bones shake and his spine vibrating from the power of the kick drum, a feeling he has never experienced before.

 _Geez, with all of this stuff I'm being introduced to, I feel like I was raised under a rock._

* * *

-*David Fesliyan (FesliyanStudios) – I Don't Wanna Dance*-

The party is still going well as the sun is nearly ready to start disappearing behind the horizon of the sea. Everyone is certainly entertained for the most part, even Knuckles has found something to do as he begins a conversation with Vanilla in the kitchen. Sonic has just finished another glass of fruit punch, and is just about to get another one when he notices that something - or rather someone - is missing from the party. At first, he looks around and sees that all of his friends are present, except for one. It seems to Sonic that his newest friend has suddenly disappeared from the scene. He is nowhere in the room with them. At first he assumes that he might have gone to the bathroom, but he thinks otherwise.

Cheese notices that Sonic seems troubled, so he floats over to him and starts floating around his head, bearing a confused look on his face. "Chao?" Cheese finally gets Sonic attention, who is able to figure that Cheese is wondering what is wrong.

"Oh, hey there, Cheese." He greets the Chao floating by him, lightly scratching the back of his head. He guesses that Cheese might know where Kurt would have gone, so he is not shy when he speaks up about it. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know where Kurt went, would you?"

Cheese takes a moment to think, remembering the last time he had seen Kurt. He has been doing so many things at the party, he is having a hard time keeping track of it all. However, the one distinct memory he has is of him playing around in the red hedgehog's quills, and he suddenly does remember the last time he saw him. Looking back to the blue hedgehog who had asked him the question, he points over to the front door, explaining that he saw Kurt walk out the door not a few minutes ago. "Chao chao chao!"

"Hmm?" Sonic looks out the window to the porch, where he can barely see the outline of someone standing outside, leaning on the railing and looking out to the sea. _What's he doing out there?_ Sonic can only wonder as he thanks Cheese and proceeds to head outside. Once he walks out, he looks over to his left, where he sees Kurt just staring out into the distance, lost in his own thoughts. "Hey buddy, are ya doin' alright?" Sonic speaks up as he walks over to him.

Kurt looks over to see who is calling him, and as soon as he figures out it's Sonic, he looks back out once more. "Yeah, I'm fine." He answers calm and cool.

"You sure? You seemed a bit troubled in there earlier, and you don't look so hot now either. Is Knucklehead still giving you a hard time? He's just a big party-pooper, but just give him time, and he'll eventually warm up to you."

Kurt smiles as Sonic continues his playful banter about Knuckles. "No, Knuckles is not a problem, Sonic."

"Then what is? You know if you need to talk to someone about something, you can talk to me."

"Yeah, I know." Kurt replies, looking a little more uncomfortable as his grip on the railing changes. "I just…I just feel a bit…out of place, I guess."

"How so?" Sonic leans against the post as he begins to grow comfortable with the outside temperature.

"Well, it's just being with all of these people that I don't know much about. I mean, I know that they're your friends, and I'm sure they mean well, but heck, I mean we only just met yesterday, yet you seem to treat me like a close friend, like one of them. I guess that it just feels really awkward to me, and it makes me rather uncomfortable."

Sonic seems to soak in this information that he is being presented with, and is quick to speak again. "Hmm…okay. Yeah, I get what you're feeling. I understand."

Kurt is surprised by this retort, as he looks over to Sonic, electric blue meeting emerald green. "You do?"

Sonic breaks the eye contact and looks out to the sea himself. "Sure. I mean, with how many times I've saved the world, I've also had to attend several different events that were in my honor, and I'm surrounded by people I don't know, and they all come up to me to shake my hand and thank me for my services, all that stuff, which is nice, but after a while it just wears on you a little. Don't get me wrong, I love doing what I do, and I love all of the people who live here, but I will admit that I'd rather be somewhere else."

"Well, what would you rather do?"

"I'd rather be on my feet, exploring all of the sights that there are to see in this massive world! Even with all of the exploring I've done, it always feels like there is something else out there that I haven't discovered, and I aim to see everything I can with the time I've got here."

"Hmm…Have you ever thought about just settling down eventually?"

"Nah, never like staying in one place for too long. I like to keep myself active."

"Maybe someone might come along that may change your mind?"

"Like who, Amy? Please, she's just a friend, and I wouldn't even think about something like that with _her_."

"Why not? Is she really _that_ bad? I mean, I've seen how she thinks about you, but is it-"

"We've all got our reasons." Sonic interrupts his sentence, leaving Kurt stumped. There's nothing really he can say to that, if Sonic wants to keep his opinion to himself, then Kurt has no right to barge in and ask. After all, he would be a hypocrite if he did, with all that he keeps to himself as well. Kurt instead decides to brush it off, turning to stare out at the sea once more. Sonic notices a glow in Kurt's electric blue eyes, and he looks out to the sea with him, and together they watch the sun slowly start to sink into the sea, illuminating the sky and changing it's color from clear blue to a combination of violet and blue, almost like a magenta color filling the few clouds that float above, while closer to the sun it is a burning orange-red color that seems to set the sky ablaze. "The sunsets here are amazing."

"They truly are." Kurt agrees. "You can't take them for granted." He's seen some nice sunsets in his life in the city, watching as the sun would dip below the city roofs and change its color to what he is seeing now. But seeing this new beautiful sight, seeing it sink into a golden sea with waves crashing from side to side towards the shore, its sight is glorious to behold in his eyes. He likes this new change in scenery, having essentially lived in the city his entire life, it's nice to get away from all of that and see nature for what it really is.

Sonic notices by the tone in Kurt's voice that he is still troubled. He looks over to the red hedgehog, whose red fur seems to be illuminated by the light of the world.

 _The way he talks, it sounds as if something bad happened to him in his past._ Sonic thinks to himself. _I want to ask, but it doesn't seem like he's ready for that yet. One day, I'm sure he'll talk about it, so until then, I suppose that I could wait._

Noticing that it is getting late, Sonic realizes that the party won't be lasting but a little while longer, so he needs to think about wrapping things up pretty soon. "…Alright, are you feeling a little better?"

"Uh, I guess so." Kurt mutters, not really sure whether or not that statement was the truth.

"Well, the party's still alive, so why don't we get back in there and live a little! Come on, I can hang around if it makes you feel better!"

"Thanks for the offer, but I think that I'll be fine on my own. You can do your own thing."

"And if I choose to talk to you more?" Sonic counters with a raised brow and a smirk on his face. He knows that he has trapped Kurt into a corner here with this one.

"…Well, then there's not much I can do there, I suppose." Kurt responds, not really wanting to shoo Sonic away.

"Sweet! Then let's head back inside!" Sonic proceeds into the house, where the music has decreased to a slower tempo than before. Kurt watches as Sonic heads back inside.

 _Sonic really seems to be a kind and caring guy. Given how relaxed he always seems to be, maybe I can afford to put a little trust in him, but not too much quite yet_ _. I don't want him to become involved with my affairs as to why I'm here._

Kurt soon returns inside to rejoin the party, enjoying his time getting to know more about Sonic's friends before the party comes to a close and everyone heads home.

* * *

 **A/N:** **I knowww, hardly anything has happened, but I'm just introducing Kurt to most of the gang. Just stick tight, there's going to be plenty of action going on in the next chapter, I promise ;)!**

 **I'm hoping to get some artwork up for the cover image soon, but developing an idea for the cover image of this story is proving to be quite a challenge, so I'm having fun with that :P**

 **Also, my original plan was just to focus on this story, but I have now got dozens of ideas dancing around my head that I just can't keep to myself, plus it might be something you guys would be interested in. I'm trying to develop these stories as well, which is why it is taking me some time to get these updates out. I'll put out an update after I expand a little further on these ideas.**

 **So yeah, Happy New Year, everyone!**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What :**

 **The search for a job leads Kurt to the city,**

 **where skills are put to the test when things go south…**


	5. Résumés, Robots, and Revelations

**PixTV: Glad to hear you're liking the story so far! You and everyone else are in for a real treat :)**

* * *

Chapter Four: Résumés, Robots, and Revelations

The next morning comes much faster than Kurt anticipated it would. He wants to drift off once more, becoming addicted to the level of comfort his new bed is providing him, but the morning light pouring into the room denies Kurt that right. He wills himself up and proceeds to the shower in order to wake up. He is quick this time, taking a cold shower to help wake up, which he regrets the moment he steps in. Nevertheless, he finishes in record time, but he takes his time to dry off as he feels like he is freezing, so he keeps the towel wrapped around himself as he shivers, trying to keep himself warm. He curses his thick coat of fur, since this situation is one of its cons. But he eventually decides that all he is doing is putting off the inevitable, and he doesn't want to be a dick to Sonic by keeping him waiting on breakfast downstairs, so he sets to work drying off and puts on his jacket as soon as he can. His gloves and boots soon follow, and he is already heading on downstairs, where Sonic is just finishing up cooking breakfast and Tails is waiting patiently at the table.

"Morning, Kurt!" Sonic is cheerful as usual.

"Morning." Kurt retorts back. "What's on the menu today, chef?"

"Waffles!"

Kurt expects to hear more foods mentioned, but none are mentioned afterwards. "Is that all?" He asks, rather disappointed by the lack of food.

"I'd like to see you _try_ to stomach these bad boys and want more!" Sonic returns with confidence.

"Yeah, I wouldn't take Sonic's waffles lightly if I were you, because they're anything but!" Tails adds. "The only one who's managed to have seconds after one…"

"…is yours truly!" Sonic finishes the sentence. "Just one of them is enough to fill even Eggman's big belly!"

Kurt now has to reconsider what has been said. "Heh, well if that's the case, then I honestly don't know if I'll even be able to finish _half_ of it! Is it _that_ filling?"

"Sure is!" Sonic immediately replies with a smile on his face.

Soon enough, the whole gang has had their fair share of food, and they all clean the dishes up in good time. Tails heads downstairs for only a few moments before returning back upstairs with his toolbox and goggles over his head. "Well, G.U.N.'s calling me in again, so I'd better get going!" He calls out as he heads to the door.

"Just don't do everyone else's work for them!" Sonic tells Tails in a tone like a parent would give their child going off to school, not that Kurt would know what either of those are like, but the talk of jobs does get his thoughts churning. Tails only laughs at this as he heads out and shuts the door behind him. "Geez, the kid's only ten, and it's like he's already an adult, they grow up so fast." Sonic is about ready to take off on his morning run. "Well, I guess I better get going then-"

"Hey Sonic?" Kurt speaks up just in time. Sonic stops in place, looking back over at his hedgehog companion.

"Yeah, what's up?" Kurt can tell that Sonic is a little annoyed that he has been held back from his run, but he needs to speak to him about this now.

"I've just been thinking. I agreed to stay here because I didn't have any means of getting my own place since I don't have a job. Well, I still haven't been able to do anything to find one, so I just think that if I want to stick around Station Square and all, I'm going to need a job of some kind."

"Hmm…" Sonic sits on the top of the sofa to think. "Alright. I'm not much of the working type, but I'll see what I can do to help ya out."

"That would be much appreciated."

"So what do ya wanna do?"

"Well, I think I've mentioned this before, but I want to do investigative work, and maybe even help others out of trouble, perhaps."

"Helping others out of trouble? Heh, I could help ya there. You and I could always tag-team on Eggman's butt whenever he _rolls_ into town!" Sonic cracks up at the joke, and it even makes Kurt chuckle a little as well. Kurt always enjoys how silly Sonic can be at times, it's a nice break from the harsh world of reality. Sonic calms down enough to actually continue. "Eh, but in all seriousness, you could always look to the government, maybe G.U.N., though I've never been on the best of terms with the Commander there, long story. Anyways, there's that, or you could see if Vector would be willing to add an additional spot for you in the Chaotix."

"The Chaotix…" Kurt remembers this name, as Sonic had mentioned it before. "…you said that they were a detective agency, right?"

"Yep, and since I know them so well, I could probably put a good word in for you or something like that."

"You would?"

"Sure! You look like the kind of guy who could do that kind of thing!"

 _Do I really?_ Kurt has never thought about this before, so to hear it for the first time seems a bit surprising to him. "…Okay, I guess that the Chaotix sounds like it would be a good place to go, since you know them fairly well and all."

"Alright, then let's go!" Sonic gets up rather hastily and grabs Kurt's arm, and before Kurt can even say anything, they are already gone, the door locking itself behind them.

* * *

It is not even a few minutes after they left that they have arrived in the spiraling metropolis that is Station Square. Skyscrapers tower over the two hedgehogs as several people walk along the sidewalks with suitcases, bags, and purses in hand, doing whatever business they may have in the city. Cars are traveling down each of the streets, slowly starting to back up, but that's not enough to stop Sonic. He barrels right down the middle of these cars, with Kurt in tow, as they finally reach a small, two-story house in the middle of the city.

"And we're here!" Sonic announces as he lets go of Kurt, who is slightly dizzy, but not as much as he was the first time he was dragged at a speed past the sound barrier.

"Geez Sonic, a little warning next time, won't ya?" Kurt asks in a tone that shows that he is rather annoyed. But Sonic doesn't even register this comment as he goes up to the front door to knock.

 _Well, that's kind of rude._ Kurt thinks to himself. _But I guess that I should have expected that, since Sonic seems to be very impatient at times._

"Yo, Vec! Are ya home?" Sonic shouts out as he knocks on the door. "It's me, Sonic! I've got a friend who'd like to talk to ya!"

Several seconds pass by, and the door remains shut; they cannot hear any noise inside, though any of that would probably be blocked out by the city noise. Kurt starts to become more and more nervous as he waits even longer, kind of wishing that they had not come at all. "Eh, maybe we should come back another-" Before his sentence is even finished, the door is unlocked and begins to open. "…time…never mind."

At the door, they are greeted by a purple chameleon with yellow eyes, with gloves and boots that match his own purple color. It reminds Kurt of the ninjas he has read about before. "Greetings, Sonic. What brings you here today?"

"Hey, Espio! Long time no see!" Sonic seems excited to see this chameleon. He points back to Kurt. "See, my friend Kurt here is new to these parts, and he was looking for some work, so I thought you guys could help out!"

"I-If you wouldn't mind, of course!" Kurt hastily stammers as not to get on Espio's bad side. Espio looks over to the newcomer, eyes glancing around the form, trying to figure him out. Kurt feels nerve-wracked by those glaring yellow eyes, swallowing and sweating in his nervousness. Kurt is worried that he might get the wrong vibe on him or just decide that he isn't worth their time, which would probably ruin him inside.

"Hmm…" Espio finally speaks up again. "I'll have to talk to Vector about this, but in the meantime, why don't you come in?"

"Sure!" Sonic seems excited as Espio opens up the space to allow Sonic passage inside, but when Kurt proceeds to follow, he is blocked at the door.

"But," Espio looks to Kurt once more, "you must hand over your weapons before you enter."

 _What?! How could he know I'm carrying anything?! Was my gun sticking out or something?_ Kurt looks over to Sonic, who just gives him a look saying to do as he says. Reluctantly, Kurt pulls his gun out of his jacket and hands it to Espio grip first. But even after he hands over his gun, Espio still does not let him pass through.

"All of them."

 _Chaos dammit…_ Kurt curses to himself as he pulls his two concealed combat knives out of his boots and handing them to Espio hilt first.

"Proceed." Espio, now satisfied, steps aside, allowing Kurt passage inside of the house. However, when Kurt rejoins Sonic, he begins to wish that he had stayed outside. The main room serves as an office area of sorts, but it is a complete mess with paperwork everywhere and pizza boxes laying around, some with unfinished slices and flies flying around them. A terrible smell lingers in the air and it takes great strength for Kurt to prevent himself from covering his nose in repugnance.

 _Eugh, this place reeks! Either these guys are heavy on drugs, or they can barely make enough to pay rent! Or maybe it's just that they're terrible at cleaning up after themselves. I hope I'm making the right decision with this…_

Suddenly, he hears a buzzing noise rapidly approaching, but it does not sound like the flies, but something much bigger. Before Kurt can even figure out what it is, a childish voice rings out, and a Mobian bee comes flying in and crashes into the furniture, almost taking out a lamp. Kurt is quite surprised by this. The bee soon gets up, and notices that they have guests over. "Hey look, boss!" The bee exclaims, and now Kurt can tell that the bee is a boy. "It's Sonic! And he's brought a friend, too!"

Suddenly, everyone hears crashing coming from a room upstairs, though no one knows what it is that is being broken up there. "What?! Sonic?! Tell him I'll be right down!"

Kurt is bewildered by everything he has seen from the moment he walked into this house. He can only wonder how this is even a proper detective agency. He turns to Espio for consolation. "Err, not to be rude Espio, but is it always this...crazy here?"

Espio can be heard making a small groan and pinching in between his shut eyes, just below his horn. "Unfortunately, yes."

"Well, I guess you guys aren't called the Chaotix for nothing!" Sonic points out with a chuckle.

 _Yeah, certainly living up to the name…_

Then, heavy footsteps can be heard coming down a creaky staircase, and a green crocodile with headphones on his head and a chain around his neck appears before them. "Ah, Sonic! Good to see ya, man!" The crocodile who Kurt assumes is Vector speaks at a level not really suited for speaking indoors.

"Right back at ya, Vec!" Sonic returns the love.

"So what are you doing on this side of town? Got any requests for us?"

"Not this time, Vector." Sonic steps to the side to allow the crocodile to notice of Kurt standing there. "My friend Kurt here is the one who wanted to see you. He's looking for some employment around town and his interests match yours, so we thought that you could use someone like him."

"Hmm…" Vector looks over Kurt, though it does not bring the same level of creepiness that Espio's gaze did, but Kurt is still nervous nevertheless. "Sorry, but we ain't looking to hire."

Kurt's heart sinks, and his mood seems to flatten at these words.

"Aw, come on, Vec!" Sonic protests. "Kurt here came all the way from Metal City!"

This seems to catch the group's attention. "Did you say Metal City?" Vector asks, looking over to Kurt for an answer.

"Uh…yeah." Kurt finally speaks up for himself. "I've been helping the city's police department around there, doing some detective work and undercover work for them part-time since I was fourteen. They thought of me as highly useful in the field."

"Boss, if my memory serves me correctly," Espio notes, "I recall hearing rumors of a Mobian working for the law enforcement over in Metal City over the last few years. He was reported to be a top agent who had deadly accuracy with a handgun and has never failed a case."

"And you think that this guy would happen to be that Mobian in particular?" Vector asks Espio.

"Well, I was the only Mobian in the office there," Kurt puts in a little hesitantly, "so chances are that you are probably talking about me."

"Really? Deadly accuracy? With a handgun?"

"Best in the force. I'm regarded as a close-combat sniper."

"Hmm…I want to see some proof here."

"Proof? How so?"

Espio pulls a kunai out of his glove. "See my kunai? I will throw it at that target over there," pointing over to a dart board on the other side of the room, "and I want you to launch the bullet into the ring at the end of the pommel."

Kurt seems unnerved by this. "That's a next to impossible shot!"

"Nothing's impossible. If you are as good as they say you are, then you should be able to do so without any trouble."

Kurt isn't sure if he'd be able to do something like that. Sure, he is very quick and very accurate. Not only is he regarded as a sniper for his deadly accuracy, but he was also considered one of the fastest gunslingers in the police force as well. Combining these two together, no one would want to be on the other end of his crosshairs. However, a fast-moving target such as this is not something that he would consider to be a piece of cake. But he remembers that this may be his only chance to get this job, and if that is all that it takes for him to get it, then he might as well give it a shot, no pun intended. "…Alright, I suppose I could give it a go." He finally agrees. "Can I have my gun back, please?" Espio grants this request at once, and Kurt checks the gun's ammunition, deciding to replace his live rounds with a blank one so as to risk as minimal damage as possible if something goes wrong. "I've never tried anything like this before, but I suppose that it wouldn't hurt to try. Just don't get too mad if I end up shooting a hole through your house should I miss."

Finally finishing loading the gun, Kurt turns the safety off before he cocks it back and raises it forward at a perpendicular angle from the invisible line between Espio and the board, his right finger over the trigger and his left hand underneath his right for support. He awaits Espio's signal. Espio clutches his kunai, ready to let it fly. "Ready?" He asks simply.

"As I'll ever be…" Kurt says with a hint of uncertainty. He begins to focus in, slowing down his breathing and taking only shallow breaths, remaining as still as possible. He feels an itch start to bother him at the edge of his nose, and he has to resist every urge to reach up and scratch it, a second that would break his focus and would be all the time Espio would need to throw the kunai and for Kurt to miss and fail his test.

Which is exactly why Espio decided to swiftly throw it at that moment without any warning. Relying on his skills and hope, he projects the kunai's path as best as he can and pulls the trigger. After the loud bang is heard, it is immediately followed with a loud clanging noise, sounding somewhat like metal against metal, the kunai lands itself in the target, five inches away from the center. Everyone is surprised, as Espio is always able to land the kunai in the dead center of the target. When they go to examine it, they are astounded by what they see.

"Dude…" Sonic utters breathlessly. "You…actually did it…"

Kurt, who is now coming out of his focused zone, scratches his nose and looks at them with confusion. "Wait, I did?" He joins them over by the dart board, and he is surprised by what he sees. There is no clearing through the ring in the pommel of the weapon. He managed to lodge the blank round from his gun into the ring of a moving kunai.

"Perfectly, might I add." Espio adds without a tone of surprise in his voice, but rather one of someone who is impressed as he returns Kurt's combat knives to their owner. "There is no one else who could have made that shot but _that_ agent."

Everyone in the room must think that Kurt can pull a stunt like this out of his pocket every day, which would make him look like a complete badass, but in all honestly, Kurt is just as surprised as they are, if not more.

 _Holy crap, I can't believe I actually made that shot! I was shooting that on a prayer!_

"Wow, that was AWESOME, Kurt!" Charmy exclaims, getting all giddy and buzzing around, acting out all of the stunts that were just performed. "Espio went like 'WHOOSH' and you went like 'BANG' and-"

"Okay, we get it Charmy, we get it, he made the shot!" Vector tries to get him to settle down. "I've gotta admit, kid, that was a pretty good shot. You've got some true marksmanship skills!"

"Thank you." Kurt replies, not wanting to be too boastful but isn't so sure if he can at this moment since he is giving a sort of verbal version of a résumé.

"Well, if you are that Mobian from Metal City, why don't you tell us what exactly you did over there?"

"I would do detective work, working on homicide or kidnapping cases, using evidence and data to gain any leads I could. I would do undercover work in the field sometimes, patrolling the streets, trying to play the role needed in order to gain access and intelligence. Sometimes, I was called in to take out big targets that the police force couldn't."

"Hmm, interesting. And how's your record?"

"Well, Espio said it earlier. I have yet to come across a case I cannot solve. I've even reopened a few cold cases and solved those as well."

"Anyone you've taken down that was actually innocent?" Vector asks.

"I triple-checked all of my work, evidence, and theories in order to ensure that my lead is correct. I am fairly certain I haven't, or at least I hope that I haven't." The moment Kurt finishes this last sentence, he immediately regrets saying it. _Oh shit, I probably shouldn't have said that! Why couldn't I just shut up the first time?!_

"Hmm…" Vector seems to mull things over in his head. Kurt is now nervous as hell. He is praying that his last remark wasn't too penalizing that he wouldn't get the job. He really wants to get this job, as it is in his area of interest. Finally, Vector seems to have reached a verdict. "…I like you, Kurt. I can see a lot of potential in you, _and_ what you can do to improve our business! I think that we can afford to make another addition to the Chaotix."

Kurt is in a state of disbelief at this statement. "Seriously?!"

"Yep. Welcome to the Chaotix Detective Agency, kid!"

"Woo-hoo, we've got another member to the team! Woo woo woo!" Charmy cheers as he flies all around the room.

Kurt is almost without words to say, other than, "Thank you, Vector!"

"There is a problem, however…" Vector points out. This seems to bring things down, as Kurt wonders what could be wrong. "…and it's on our part. Unfortunately, we hardly have enough room to accommodate anyone else at the moment, so it may be a little cramped here."

"No problem!" Sonic speaks up once more. "He's been staying at my place over the last few days, so I can extend his lease for a little while longer!"

"Really, Sonic?!" Kurt is honored by Sonic's offer to let him continue to stay at his house. Kurt has come to really enjoy staying at Sonic's house, feeling the homey-vibe it brings out in him, a sense like he deserves to be there.

"You bet! Can't have ya catching something while living on the streets, ya know! Now while I have a say in the matter!"

Kurt knows that he would know how to keep away from 'catching something' on the streets, given that he's lived on them his whole life, but he decides not to tell Sonic about this. "Thanks, Sonic!" is all that he says to him.

 _I actually think that this might work out! I've got a new job,_ and _I can still stay with Sonic! I'm sure that this will be great for me, even if the pay is little, I'm happy with it…well, for now at least. Actually, I don't even know how much I'm going to be pai-_

Kurt's thoughts are interrupted as the house shakes and a loud explosion is heard outside. Everyone is startled by this.

"Whoa!" Vector shouts as he stumbles and falls over behind his desk in a mess of papers that litter that area. "What on Mobius was that?!"

"Ugh, I'll give you three guesses…" Sonic groans as he pinches in between his eyes and proceeds to head outside. Kurt, reloading his gun with live ammunition, soon follows behind, along with the rest of the Chaotix behind him in order to check out what caused the explosion.

* * *

It is not all too difficult to find out where the source of the explosion came from. Just go in the direction where everyone is running _away_ from screaming their throats out. Simple enough. Sonic is not surprised to figure out what caused the explosion, but the others seem it, while Kurt is merely shocked by the damage done.

"Dr. Eggman!" The Chaotix exclaim at the giant robot before them. The robot turns around, and Kurt can see a rather rotund human sitting in the cockpit at the top, wearing round blue glasses to cover his eyes and a red coat of sorts.

 _I can see why they call him 'Eggman', but holy shit that is a big robot!_

"Ah, well what do we have here?" Eggman bellows. "A bunch of little pests that don't know their place!"

"Geez Egghead," Sonic rants, "it's bad enough when you come to play, but I always have to clean up after you because you leave your toys everywhere!"

"I think that you will have a hard time trying to pierce this armor, blue rodent." Eggman sneers with confidence.

That annoys Sonic, as well as Kurt, because calling a hedgehog a rodent is nearly equivalent to…well, just connect the dots. "Hey, you've had a face full of quills at one point, you should know I'm a hedgehog!"

"Yes, and one that will meet his doom at the hand of my Egg Breaker!" Eggman laughs.

"Sonic, keep your guard up!" Espio warns Sonic. "Shadow and I have fought this robot before during the Black Arms invasion, and it is not a robot to take lightly!"

"Really?" Sonic observes, struggling to hold back his laughter. "Has it finally come to the point where he has to recycle his old mechs that didn't work before? He's running out of ideas already, and he's supposed to be a genius!"

Suddenly, Eggman fires the large spiked ball from the machine's right arm straight at them, which they are all able to dodge rather easily. When Kurt looks back, he is shocked to see the crater that was where they once stood.

 _Shit, I never expected to get involved in something like this!_ Kurt thinks to himself. _And Sonic deals with stuff like_ this _all of the time?! That makes the work I've done look like child's play!_

"Hey Kurt," Sonic grabs Kurt's attention, "I'll do my normal job of playing with Eggman, you help the Chaotix evacuate the people from the area!"

"Y-Yeah, that's what I was planning to do!" Kurt stammers, definitely intimidated by the mech before him, rather glad that he doesn't have to take it on. So as soon as Sonic spin-dashes towards the mech, Kurt gets to work. "Everyone, get away from here now!" Kurt and the Chaotix immediately begin to guide people away from the chaos that is ensuing down the street.

-*Shiro Sagisu - Stand Up Be Strong*-

Meanwhile, the battle between the two enemies has begun.

"Prepare yourself Sonic," Eggman's mech creates a tremor when it smashes its foot into the ground, "for you will have quite a tough time bringing my latest creation down!"

Sonic is quite unimpressed. "Okay…one, you _totally_ pulled this one out of the trash pile, and two, bring it on!" Sonic has been itching for some action lately. Eggman has been inactive for the last few months, so Sonic has had no idea what kind of plan the man could be making and nothing to do but going on runs around the world, which of course is not a problem for him at all. However, he has grown quite bored from the quiet around the city and was beginning to think about helping out around the city with other kinds of crimes he normally doesn't tackle because the law enforcement has been spread thin as of late.

Seeing Eggman again is as if his birthday's come early this year.

The doctor is the first one to make a move, as the robot hurls forward through the air right at Sonic, but the blue hedgehog easily sidesteps out of the way of the robot's path. "Gonna have to be quicker than that, Eggy-whoa!" Sonic is cut off by a large spiked ball the size of a boulder swinging from the robot's arm and into his way. He narrowly ducks to avoid getting hit by the ball that could end his life should a single spike end up in the wrong place. "Though I'll have to admit you're getting better at this!"

Eggman sneers. "After all of the years we have quarreled, one learns his enemy's tactics to the point where they become their weakness!"

"Uh-huh, like how your weakness is that you don't know when to just give up and retire." Sonic dodges another charge from Eggman's robot and uses his strong legs to bounce high up into the air, curling up into a ball to move on the offensive. "Alright, fun and games are over, Eggman! Time to take out the trash!" Spinning in the air, he unleashes the Homing Attack, his signature aerial attack onto Eggman's robot, thinking he will make quick work of the robot.

Only to bounce right off of the robot's armor without even leaving a scratch. The blue hero rebounds back down to the ground, clutching his head as it starts to ache. "What?!"

Eggman begins to cackle from inside the safety of his cockpit. "I wasn't kidding around when I said that the armor of my Egg Breaker is impenetrable, you blue buffoon!"

Sonic pauses to carefully hold his pointy nose, which received quite a beating upon impact. _Ow, got my nose real good there…what's that thing made of? Hmm, well if Shadow could bring this hunk of junk down, then so can I!_ Now all fired up, Sonic takes on the giant robot once again, this time with a little less strut to his stride as he begins to grow serious.

So far, the evacuation has been fairly successful, but soon, Kurt notices that there are people stuck inside of the buildings right next to where Sonic and Eggman are battling.

 _I've got to get them out of there somehow, but I'll have to go through the battlefield in order to do so!_ Kurt thinks as he heads over to the battle, making sure to keep clear of the robot as much as he can. From what he has seen, Sonic is hardly able to even put a dent in the armor of the robot, proving Eggman's word that it is highly durable. _Looks like Sonic's not having an easy time with this either, I'd better hurry!_

He moves some light rubble aside and opens the door into a café with six frightened people huddling against the ground inside. "I need for you to listen to me." Kurt speaks up over the noise. "You're not safe here, you need to get yourself away from here immediately. Is there a back entrance you can go through?"

"The back door has been blocked off by rubble!" The manager speaks up.

 _Well that's just great…_ Kurt can't help but think but shakes this thought off as another ripple shakes the building. "Okay, then we'll have to do this the hard way. It's not the safest way, but we have to get out of here, so I'm going to need you guys to come with me. I will guide you three at a time away from the fight, we'll have to go right past them, but if we are quick and careful, you will be fine, alright?" The people don't seem to share Kurt's confidence. "Please, I need you to trust me here. If you stay here, you won't stand a chance!"

Eventually, three people decide to follow along with Kurt to run to safety. Kurt is pleased by their decision. "Great, just stay close to me, alright?" He advises them. "Watch out for any flying rubble, but stay right next to me, and I will get you to safety!"

However, as soon as they get out, an energy beam hits just right above the café, causing rubble to fall and block off the entrance, trapping the others inside. Kurt begins to guide the three civilians as fast as he safely can away from the fight. But then he sees an energy beam headed right for them!

"Get down, watch out!" He cries as he pulls them down to the ground behind a car, which takes the hit full on, causing it to flip over them and crash through the window of the building next to them, barely missing them by inches. They get up hastily and continue to run. Soon enough, they are out of danger, and the rest of the Chaotix are able to guide them away from the fight.

Back in the heat of the fight, Sonic is panting as he starts to grow wearisome, as nothing he does seems to be damaging Eggman's robot at all.

 _Darn, Eggman's right, there's no way I can make a hole in that armor of his. It's thicker than Knuckles' head! It's fast, too, so I hardly even have time to-_

"LIGHTS OUT!"

Sonic's thoughts are interrupted when he is once again pummeled by Eggman's spike ball, launching him down the street. He has to maneuver his body in order to avoid cars that he almost collides into and tries to regain his footing. He lands close by where the Chaotix are still busy trying to evacuate the street. He groans, feeling quite sore as he climbs back onto his feet. Espio is closest and runs over to the hedgehog. "Sonic, is everything alright?"

"Urgh," Sonic holds his aching head, "as much as I hate to say it, I'm not sure of how to beat this thing. How the heck did you and Shadow take this guy down last time?"

"I do not understand either, his armor was not this thick before, nor was he this fast."

"So you're clueless too, eh?" He rubs the underside of his nose, noticing a little bit of blood staining his glove. "Great…guess I'll have to figure something out!" He revs up in place before taking off again, running full speed ahead into the mech while curled up and quills are raised, but even this saw-like attack seems to do nothing.

Eggman huffs at how puny Sonic's attacks looks to him. "It is useless to resist, my spiny-blue friend. My Egg Breaker has you beaten this time!"

"I'll give it to you," Sonic admits, "you've certainly stepped up your game, Doc. But what makes you think that I'm just going to let you win?"

"It might help if my robot was powered by _this_!" Sonic can see something flashing inside of the cockpit of the mech, just in front of Eggman, something familiar that shocks the blue hedgehog. Resting there on a pedestal is a familiar cyan jewel he has seen many times in the past.

"No way, a Chaos Emerald?!"

"Oh yes, and it is thanks to this special little gem that all of my newest brilliant creations have been powered up to defeat you, so this is where our game will end, you blue buffoon!"

Sonic grits his teeth as his enters a track runner's position. "It's gonna take more than a Chaos Emerald for you to beat me, Egghead!"

Kurt looks back, and he sees that Sonic is still fighting against Eggman, and the robot does not look like it has taken on any more damage than before, which pisses Kurt off even more.

 _Dammit, the doctor's machine is creating debris from the buildings, and it's harming bystanders! Sonic may be able to take him on, but this needs to end a lot quicker! Too many people are going to get hurt at this rate! I have to do something to damage that thing, but how? There must be some kind of weak point…_

Kurt examines the robot and its movements. But no matter what he sees, there does not seem to be any flaw in the design, it appears to be impenetrable.

"Grr…I can't see any weak spot…" Kurt pulls his Glock out and points it at the giant mech, "…so I'll just have to make one!" He concentrates, aiming his gun at the robot, waiting for the moment when Sonic leaps away from the robot so that he can have a clear shot. This takes a lot of patience, as Sonic bounces off of the mech several times, trying to make a dent. Finally, he leaps back to take a breath.

 _Now!_

Kurt takes his chance and fires at the mech several times, but the bullets only seem to bounce off of the armor. But Kurt is persistent, he chooses not to give up, and he keeps going every time Sonic is away from the bot. Sonic notices a sound of something whizzing right past his head a couple of times and seems to make tinging noises like metal-on-metal. He looks around, trying to find out where it's coming from, and he can see Kurt down the street, aiming his Glock right at Eggman's robot and poised to fire. Sonic sweatdrops.

 _Hopefully he's not trying to shoot me! But maybe he's seeing if he can find a weak spot too!_ A smirk reveals Sonic's sparkling canines. _Alright, let's do this, buddy!_ Although he doubts that Kurt is doing much to help, he leaps back to plan for another method of attack, which Kurt takes as his chance to unleash some shells different spots on the mech.

Unfortunately, Sonic isn't the only one to notice Kurt's actions. Eggman has caught on to this little act, and he turns to meet the hedgehog who is ruining his mech's paint job with bullets, rather amused by what he sees.

 _Oh fuck me._ Kurt curses to himself, but refusing to lower his aim.

"Oh-ho-ho! Now what do we have here?" Eggman taunts him. "Another annoying hedgehog to squash! And what do you think your little toy can do to my mighty machine?"

Slightly set off by that insult, Kurt aims at a certain spot under the left arm of the robot, something that looks a little different than the rest of the machine, and fires one more round. As it turns out, what he hit was a vent, and the bullet managed to slip through the cracks, unleashing internal damage on the robot as it ricochets around, causing it to spark a little, and suddenly, the left arm of the robot explodes, leaving some internal wiring open to the air. Kurt smirks cheekily at his work, deciding to get a little cocky and answer Eggman's question with, "That."

Sonic, although annoyed that he couldn't damage the mech first, is pleased to see that Eggman's robot now has a weak point. "Alright, Kurt! Great shot!"

Eggman now seems pissed. "Grr! How dare you mess up my Egg Breaker?! You'll pay for that!"

"Uh-oh! Hey, this fight's between you and me-!" Sonic tries to intervene, but Eggman is too quick and swats Sonic with the mech's spiky wrecking ball hand into a building on the other end of the street, proceeding to attack Kurt at incredible speed. Kurt, having to act quickly, pulls the trigger several times while aiming at the new weak point, but all he hears are clicks, and when he looks at his gun, he sees that the ammo clip is empty.

"Oh crap…"

Kurt quickly dives to the side, narrowly avoiding a rather prickly ball as he crashes to the pavement, the car next to him not receiving such a nice fate as it is launched down the street. He turns to see the large robot swinging the ball right back at him, narrowly ducking to avoid it. He tries to head back down the street from where he came from, quite eager to get out of the line of fire, but the lasers shooting around him signal that he is not in the way, but rather he is the intended target. One blast hits right in front of his feet, throwing him to the side and hard onto the ground. Kurt is hurt by the fall, but not greatly, as he swiftly returns to his feet and tries to get away.

Hearing a sizzling sound behind him, he is alarmed to see a bomb in the mech's hand, being thrown right at him! Eying a nearby fire escape, Kurt uses his momentum and the wall to jump up to reach it, narrowly avoiding the bomb's radius. However, this isn't the only bomb Eggman has with him. "You know what they say," Eggman teases, throwing more bombs at Kurt as he climbs the fire escape to get away, "the more the merrier!" Finally, one bomb does the trick, bringing down the entire fire escape, Kurt along with it. He hollers in panic as he begins to fall, but he is stopped mid-fall when Eggman's mech reaches in and grabs him tightly. He is brought up to meet Eggman at eye-level, struggling to free himself from the mech's firm grasp.

"So we have another troublemaker here, don't we?" Eggman sniggers, Kurt growling as he tries to squirm harder. "I don't recall seeing you before, it isn't often when I come across another _rodent_ that tries to get in my way." This slur angers Kurt, as he hates being called such. "But in case you didn't know, let me inform you on some important information." And with the pull of a lever, the hand holding Kurt in place grows tighter and tighter, squeezing Kurt to the point where he clenches his eyes and cries out in pain. "It is _never_ a smart decision to mess with the great Doctor Eggman."

Raising the arm, Eggman flings Kurt down the street, skidding multiple times along the pavement and crashing right into a car parallel-parked in front of a suit store, leaving a large dent in the car and Kurt in a lot of pain as he collapses to the pavement. Kurt struggles to breathe correctly, as the hand had crushed him fairly badly, and his landing wasn't much better on his back. He thinks that his skidding across the pavement gave him a broken nose, or at least what he thinks could be a broken nose.

"Urgh…" He groans as he reaches a shaky hand behind his head, which is now killing him with pain, and when he pulls his hand back, he is shocked to see blood staining his glove and hand. He shakily gazes his eyes upward, and he can see Eggman's mech slowly marching down the street, on its way to finish him off, while Sonic is struggling to get back on his feet himself. Kurt is all alone at this moment, it seems like there won't be any hero to come to his rescue for this one.

-*Zero – Shields*-

 _No, it can't end like this._ Kurt protests as he grips his fist and struggles to try to get back to his feet. He has never been in this much pain before. _I can't die like this, not now. I haven't fulfilled my promise to find and rescue my brother yet! The people here are still in danger, and Sonic can't take Eggman on his own! Someone has to stop him! I can't give up!_ He finally is able to get up on one knee. _I_ _need to keep fighting, in order to protect the people…and my_ friends _!_

The mech has finally reached Kurt, towering over him with an aura of terror that would be sure to make those before it cower. "Now, let's get rid of this pest, shall we?" Eggman says aloud as he commands the robot to raise its foot, aimed to stomp down on Kurt and kill him.

"No, Kurt!" Sonic shouts from afar, struggling to get back to his feet, and as he tries to run to Kurt's rescue, he keeps stumbling over debris and falling back down again.

Suddenly, the robot's foot stops, not having completed its task. "Wha…" Eggman is surprised when his Emerald starts to glow unexpectedly. He looks over the side of the mech to see what is going on down below, and is utterly shocked by what he sees. "Eh, what?! What is this?!"

"K-Kurt…?!" Sonic utters breathlessly, in the same state of shock and surprise as Eggman as he watches the scene from afar.

Kurt is still alive, as a transparent, green barrier of energy has suddenly appeared in front of his hands, shielding him from the robot's wrath. He seems to be the one holding it in front of him, as he groans and struggles below the mech as if he is holding up its weight himself. He slowly struggles and manages to stand up, his knees bent low, and his eyes seem to have changed, his irises and pupils merging together and appear to have turned from their normal electric blue to a green that shines brightly.

"I…won't…go…down…like _this_ …!" He groans, squeezing his eyes shut and using what strength he has left to push up with a mighty yell. The barrier seems to follow his actions, as it pushes Eggman's mech back and launches it halfway down the street, losing its balance and toppling over onto its back. The barrier disappears, and Kurt's eyes return to normal as he lowers his arms and pants heavily, seemingly exhausted by what has just happened. He feels so drained that he slowly feels himself fading out and gravity seems to change its course as all Kurt can hear is his name being called out before everything goes black.

* * *

Beep…beep…beep…beep…

This is the first sound that Kurt hears as he finally begins to regain consciousness. He can't see anything, but he sure can feel things. He feels awfully sore, but not as bad as he was feeling earlier. He feels something inserted into his arm, which kind of freaks him out, but then he hears the sounds of a steady beeping noise again, which seems to line up with his heartbeat, so he begins to connect the dots. He slowly opens his eyes, and though his vision is blurry, he can see several figures around him. He is lying on a bed that is inclined to where his back is raised. "Wha…wh-where…am I…?"

"You're at the hospital, Mister Kurt!" A small voice says to his left, and when he looks, he can identify the figure as Cream by matching her voice.

"Oh?" He responds weakly as his eyesight improves to where he can identify everyone in the room as everyone he has met thus far. He identifies his location is as Cream said, a hospital room. His clothes have been removed, and all that he wears is a Mobian-sized hospital gown. He has an IV tube sticking into his arm, and he has suction cups on his chest that read his heartbeat. "Huh, well…how did I get here then? What happened?"

"It was awesome!" Charmy exclaims with excitement. "You were about to be squashed like a bug by Eggman's big bad robot, but then you made this green shield thingy appear that protected you from him, and then you pushed him away!"

"I…I did what?"

"After you fainted," Sonic continues from where Charmy left off, "I took care of Egghead thanks to that new weak point you made and sent him packing, then I brought you here myself."

"Hmm…my memories are kind of blurry from then, but…why did I faint?"

It seems that no one is able to answer this question, since most of them weren't even at the scene to understand it, while the ones that did didn't even understand it themselves. Sonic seems to have a look that he might have an idea, so Kurt prepares to ask him about it.

"It was due to a shortage of Chaos Energy." Knuckles states before Kurt can even ask, suddenly drawing in the hedgehog's attention. "…What?"

Knuckles walks through the crowd of Mobians and approaches the bed, holding a small cyan gem in his hands. "Kurt, I want you to hold this."

"Uh…" Kurt seems completely lost, as if there is something he has been left out of the loop about. "What is it, some shiny rock?"

"This isn't just any _rock_." Knuckles explains to him sternly, holding it out to him. "This is a Chaos Emerald, one of seven. Each one holds mystical power that can be unlocked by certain people. This is the one that Sonic got from Eggman. I want to see if it will react to your touch."

"Uh, okay…" Kurt can't help but feel like he's falling into a trick that will result in everyone making fun of him as he reaches out for the emerald. Knuckles places it into his naked hand, and as soon as it comes into contact with him, he suddenly feels a rush of something inside of him. He gasps at the feeling as his vision fades away from the group and he starts to see blurry visions, unable to identify any of the figures that are within them, all the while a female voice calmly chants some kind of ritual in the background, or at least that's what Kurt figures.

"The servers are the seven Chaos…"

The first vision that fills his eyes is of a figure standing above a city that looks like Station Square, creating explosions that rip chunks out of the buildings surrounding it with just a mere snap of their fingers.

"Chaos is power…power is enriched by the heart…"

Next, he sees another unknown figure silhouetted from behind by lights shining in front of it, with several guns aimed right at the figure.

"The heart is the controller…"

Another vision, this time depicting two figures clashing in the sky of a ruined city, one seeming to glow like a golden light.

"The controller is the one who unifies the Chaos…"

The last thing he sees is a pair of horrid green eyes with slit pupils, hearing a spine-chilling laugh echoing through his mind. He suddenly begins to feel the energy dim down, and his vision has returned back to the hospital, however, something is different. His tubes have been removed from his arm, the heartbeat monitor has zeroed out because the suction tubes were removed, and he is standing on his feet on the floor next to the bed, still clutching the Chaos Emerald in his hand. "Whoa…"

"Hmm…it's just as I thought." Knuckles concludes.

Utterly confused and somewhat frightened by what has just occurred, he turns to Knuckles for answers. "Just what _was_ that?!"

"It seems that you are a Chaos User, and a potentially powerful one at that."

Everyone seems to gasp all around the room, while Sonic's brows are merely raised in surprise. Kurt is utterly confused by what Knuckles is saying. "Chaos…User? Wait, just what is going on here?! What just happened to me?!"

"Let me try to explain it to you in a way that you can understand it." Tails starts to speak, which Kurt already dreads because of how technologically complex he can get with his words. "Chaos energy is a special energy that flows all around us, and it exists within all of us. Think of it like the oxygen you breathe. You are made of parts of Chaos energy as well, in addition to other important elements. Chaos energy is more commonly found within the Chaos Emeralds, which hold a substantial amount of energy within each one. When someone has a Chaos Emerald in their possession, certain abilities they may have are enhanced, but only certain people can truly access the full capabilities of the emerald, and as such they are dubbed 'Chaos Users'. For example, Sonic and Knuckles are Chaos Users. If Sonic has a Chaos Emerald, it can increase his speed. If Knuckles has one, his strength increases. If one manages to collect all seven of them, it makes them practically unstoppable. Are you following so far?"

Kurt seems stunned by the information he has suddenly been presented as he tries to process it all. "Uh…sorta?"

"Just get to the bottom line, Tails." Knuckles asks Tails to hurry up.

"Alright." He simplifies. "So based on how the emerald reacted to your touch, you can use their powers to enhance the energy inside of you, and based on the level of energy radiating off of you when you hold the Emerald, maybe you could even manipulate Chaos energy to your own will, kind of like our friend Shadow does."

"Oh, so we've got _another_ Shadow to deal with?" Sonic complains, though he changes his tone after realizing how offensive that might be to Kurt. "Well, at least _this_ one isn't as moody as the other one."

Kurt has to take a minute to reel in everything he has just been told.

 _Whoa…so there's this special power hidden deep inside of me, waiting to be unlocked? That's…that's insane! I never thought such a thing was possible! Maybe in children's stories, sure, but to hear that it is actually real and_ I _can use it, it's just…_ wow _…_

"Welp, as much as I'd love to stick around and chill," Sonic stretches on the spot, "there's a special _someone_ wandering about that I need to talk to." And without another word, Sonic dashes out of the room.

"Heh, never a moment where you'll find him sitting still for more than five minutes." Knuckles huffs with a small smile on his face.

"So, how are you feeling, Kurt?" Tails asks Kurt. "You must be all banged up from the fight against Eggman, but it seems like you don't have a scratch!"

As soon as Tails points this out, Kurt realizes that the soreness he had when he woke up was suddenly gone, as if the fight before had never happened. "Well, honestly, I feel just _fine_! I wonder why…?"

"It's probably due to the Emerald's powers. When you have a Chaos Emerald in your possession, it will allow you to recover from any injuries much quicker than normal."

"Huh!" Kurt seems intrigued by what the powers of the emerald have done for him. He is sure now that this gem in his hand _is_ indeed no ordinary rock. "Well, I suppose that makes sense by what you told me. It's just strange to me. What are the extents of its powers? Is there anything it can't do?"

"Not that we've found yet. Honestly, the possible uses for the Chaos Emeralds are endless. There's no telling where their limits lie. For all we know, there is no limit to their power."

Kurt seems blown away by this information, now looking back at the cyan emerald in his hand and wondering how an item of such small size could bring on such power, and with such power could bring big trouble if they fell into the wrong hands.

* * *

The sun has finally set, and Sonic has been searching and searching around the city, but has been unable to find the one person that he is looking for.

"Gah, where could he be?" Sonic wonders aloud. "I've searched everywhere, but I can't find him!"

"Looking for someone, blue hedgehog?" A voice rings out. Sonic is surprised, as he turns around and sees just the very person he's been trying to find.

"You know, you can be very slippery when people try to catch you." Sonic remarks.

"Are you here just to waste my time, because if so, I will take my leave." The figure snaps.

"Whoa, hold your horses there, cowboy. I'm not here to chat banter for once. I'm here to tell you something you might find interesting."

The figure turns back around to face him. "And what might that be?"

"Another Chaos User. We just discovered that one of my new friends is one, and he could be as strong as you."

"That is impossible. I am the-"

"Yeah-yeah, I know, save the speech. Look, I trying to say that I think that you should train him to help him learn how to use his powers."

"Do I look like a teacher to you, blue hedgehog?"

"Come on, buddy, just give him a shot! Just swing on by tomorrow morning and check him out at least!"

"Hmph!" The figure turns away from Sonic, but he does not leave. It seems to Sonic that he must be thinking things over. The figure soon comes to a conclusion. "Fine, but you better not be playing me, hedgehog!"

"Nope, no tricks here!" Sonic holds his hands up in defense. "Just little ole' honest me!"

The figure takes out a Chaos Emerald he is holding and teleports away from their location, leaving Sonic feeling accomplished that he actually managed to get through to him for once.

* * *

 **A/N: WEEEEE, finally, some action happening! So it turns out that Kurt is a little more special than we thought he was! He's not just a gunslinger or sharpshooter by any means, he is also a hidden Chaos User like Sonic and a few others, but what he can actually do, you'll have to wait and see…;)**

 **It's likely that these updates may become more spaced out. The next few chapters up to the end of the first arc need some heavy edits and LOTS of research, because not only do I have extra scenes that need to be written into my chapters, but they require more research into areas I'm not an expert in. It'll mostly be in areas to do with forensics for the Chaotix, but also there are dark chapters coming up that are pretty well written. I want to make sure that it's the best it can be, so again I'll remind you all that this story is not for those who can't handle triggering themes. It's not for another couple of chapters, and I'll let you know before it comes, so I guess that you can just consider this another warning.**

 **In addition to that, uni will be back up again, so updates are likely to be slower. I've got a small buffer, so you can expect a new chapter to come out probably next Friday or that weekend. For other updates, check back around at the ends of the week, that's when I'm likely going to put something up.**

 **Just curious, but what do you think about the music selections I've been listing? I'm interested to hear if you have been listening to them and how it fits into the story.**

 **Last thing, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has read this story so far, it really means a lot to know that you have taken time out of your day to take a look at my fanfic I have spent my free time working on. Thanks to those of you who have favorited and followed this story so far as well!**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What:**

 **As his new life begins in Station Square,**

 **Kurt learns how to harness his new powers…**


	6. The Power of Chaos

**PixTV: Awww...thank you so much, I appreciate your kind words! I try to spread word about it on my Tumblr when I update, but if you want to help you are more than welcome to share this story with others :) Plus it doesn't help that it's an M-rated work because the audience is narrowed down significantly unless the search filters are changed, but this isn't really for a younger audience, as you will soon see in future chapters. But yeah, feel free to tell others about this fanfic if you want, it really does help get my motivation going o(^_^)/***

* * *

Chapter Five: The Power of Chaos

The next morning starts as normal for Kurt, as he gets out of bed, hops in the shower, and heads on down to breakfast. He hears some voices talking downstairs, one of which is Sonic's, but Kurt doesn't recognize the other voice. He yawns as he enters the room. "Morning, Sonic." He utters sleepily.

But Sonic seems to want Kurt's immediate attention. "Hey Kurt! I've got someone here to see you!"

"See…me?" Kurt is confused until he looks up, where he sees that there are not two hedgehogs standing in the room, but _three_. This new hedgehog only has four colors to his entire frame: black for his body, red stripes, yellow ring bands or something like that, and white gloves, as well as the white fluff on his chest. His quills differ from Kurt's and Sonic's, where four of them are curved upwards instead of hanging down. His red eyes are very threatening, and Kurt already feels on edge about this guy.

"Hmph, _this_ is who you dragged me here to see?" The hedgehog's voice is deep and smooth, yet speaks with a little edge at the same time. "Are you trying to waste my time?"

"No Shadow, I'm serious!" Sonic tells the hedgehog named Shadow. "Kurt's legit! I saw how the Emerald reacted to his touch yesterday! He's a Chaos User!"

"So you're Shadow?" Kurt speaks up, forcing his body to shake off its sleepiness. "I've heard your name come up a few times before."

"Just show me what you can do." He snaps at Kurt, causing him to flinch. Kurt is puzzled by what Shadow commanded. "Uh, what?"

Sonic comes to Kurt's rescue and helps out. "Here, take the emerald. He wants to see how it reacts to you."

"Oh, okay." Seeing the cyan Chaos Emerald from before laying on top of the table, he goes towards it and picks it up. This time, Kurt does not receive any vision, but he does feel a strange sensation coming over him, as if something is radiating from the emerald, which in this case is a little bit of light. He can also hear faint voices, but they are indistinguishable. He does not notice the green aura that begins to envelop him, but the warmth of the energy does make him feel tingly all over, quite a welcoming feeling.

"Enough." Shadow finally states. At his command, Kurt places the emerald in his jacket pocket, immediately breaking the aura field that surrounds him as it disappears. "It seems that the emeralds do react to your touch."

"Yeah. Knuckles says that it makes me a Chaos User, right?"

"Yes, and based on the energy you and the emerald, you may be able to use Chaos energy like myself." He takes some time to think to himself, seeming a bit skeptical at first. "It's decided."

"What's decided?"

"I will make an attempt to 'teach' you how to use Chaos Energy." Shadow explains as he walks up to him and grabs his wrist rather roughly.

"Ah, wait what-?!" Kurt starts to ask, but is interrupted by Shadow shouting, "Chaos CONTROL!" And suddenly, both of them are gone. Sonic is left in awe of what just happened.

"Well, that was rather fast, and that's coming from _me_!"

* * *

In a flash, Shadow and Kurt reappear on a sandy beach. Kurt looks around in surprise, seeing that he is no longer in the house, but is on a large, unfamiliar shoreline, and no one appears to be around. He looks inland, and he can see only a tropical forest, no signs of civilization.

"What just-?!" Kurt spins around to give Shadow a incredulous look. "Where are we?!"

"We are on a remote island several kilometers away from the nearest form of civilization." Shadow tells him. "It is void of humans and Mobians, so they will not be a distraction to your training."

"A deserted island?!" Kurt is in shock. "We're on a deserted island?! Why?! Couldn't we have done it on the beach back home or something?!"

"It would have proven to be a distraction. Now sit down by the trees so that we can get started."

Kurt really doesn't like this Shadow guy's attitude. First thing in the morning, he doesn't even get to have any breakfast and he's been whisked off to an island miles away from anywhere where this guy whose attitude makes him seem like a straight up jackass begins telling him what to do. Given all that's happened so far, Kurt is half tempted to slug this guy with a sucker punch, but given the fact that he _teleported them hundreds if not thousands of miles away_ , he's inclined to believe that this guy must be pretty powerful. After all, the way Sonic has spoken about Shadow has seemed to be pretty high, and he usually says that about those who he feels can keep up with him. Kurt is really not in the mood to get into conflict, especially after the battle that occurred in Station Square just yesterday. Seeing that he's not going to be going anywhere anytime soon, Kurt obliges to Shadow's demands, following him over to the tree line and sitting down on the grass below him, just in front of Shadow, who has done the same.

"I assume you already know about Chaos energy from the fox kid, am I correct?" Shadow asks Kurt, who is annoyed that Shadow didn't call Tails by his name.

"His name is Tails, and yes he told me about it." Kurt answers with a bit of hostility. He has only been in the presence of Shadow for about five minutes and he already doesn't like him. He just hopes to himself that it won't take long for him to figure out how to use his powers so that he can get away from this black hedgehog.

"Very well, then let's begin. First, you must look deep inside of yourself, where there is a sea of potential Chaos Energy to use."

Kurt seems confused by this. He feels completely awkward by this action, so he closes his eyes and tries to concentrate on looking deep within. Several minutes pass, and Kurt does not feel like he has made any progress. He does not know what he is looking for, so he just feels silly for trying.

-*Lisa Gerrard – Coming Home*-

After about two hours, he is about to give up, and Shadow is about to give up on him as well, but then Shadow feels a sudden change in Kurt's energy. Kurt's eyes scrunch up, he thinks he might feel something different, when suddenly he feels a strange kind of opening within him that he falls through, feeling something radiating all around him. He wants to holler, but he cannot find his voice. Though he has fallen through this hole, he does not feel like he is actually falling, but rather just floating. He opens his eyes, and is left in awe as to what sight presents itself to him. Instead of being on the beach, he is floating in a vast space of green and blue, seeming to have no end in sight. He is within the pool of dormant Chaos energy that resides inside of himself.

"Well?" Shadow's voice seems to reverberate from all around, and Kurt cannot tell from where it comes from, but Kurt assumes that Shadow must be speaking to him back in the real world.

"I…I think I found it…!" Kurt utters breathlessly. "It's so massive…I can't see where it ends or begins!" He moves his arm across his body, and a colorful trail of Chaos energy follows along behind. "Whoa…"

"Good, then you have located it successfully."

He enjoys watching the trails of Chaos energy that follow his body, so he proceeds to move around as if he were underwater or flying, doing little flips and waving his arms around. It feels so warm and comfortable inside this vast space, Kurt wonders why he never knew this about himself for so long. Perhaps it took coming in contact with a Chaos Emerald to unlock this hidden potential he has. Swirling his hands around, he creates a little ball of energy, compressing it by pushing his hands closer together. He then throws it into the air, watching as it explodes all around like a firework. Kurt is astounded by all that he sees. "This is…this is incredible!"

But suddenly, he feels something different, something disturbing as his body shivers, his back no longer feeling the warmth it once felt from the world around him. He turns his body to look behind him, and in the distance he sees some kind of cloud of shadows as black as night. He can feel the power coming from the shadows, calling out to him to come closer, and it unnerves him, shivering as he gains goosebumps across his body. He lightly hugs himself to keep warm and safe. "What is that…?"

"What is it?" Shadow asks from beyond, unable to see what Kurt sees.

"I don't know…it's so dark, and so cold…"

"Stay away from it." Shadow demands with a stern voice Kurt has not heard from the black hedgehog before. "That is the darker side of your abilities. They are very powerful, but are fueled by dark thoughts, such as sadness, hatred, or rage. You can't let your emotions grow out of control, or else you will take on a Dark form, losing control of yourself and the actions you make. You will not recognize friend from foe."

"I won't…?" Kurt shivers at this thought, imagining a darker version of himself that wouldn't even recognize any of his friends. He could potentially kill Sonic or Tails without really meaning to, all because he let his temper grow out of control. "Just how powerful is this…'Dark form'?"

But this time, there is no response as Kurt is left alone floating in the vast pool of energy around him. He looks at his hands, watching as Chaos energy sparkles off of them. He can't even think about what it would be like if he accidentally hurt his friends without meaning to. He feels how powerful and tempting the dark cloud behind him is, so that on top of everything else around him makes him wonder how terrifying the Dark form could truly be. He has had many trials and tribulations throughout his life, and yet this never seemed to happen before, not to his knowledge at least. Never before has he felt darkness like this, and what disturbs him about it is that it is hidden deep inside himself, with some kind of fuse waiting to be ignited, so should he have another incident like before, something terrible could happen for all he knows. What if he has a panic attack? What would happen then?

Out in the real world, Shadow is watching Kurt with intrigue. Said hedgehog is still sitting with his legs crossed and holds his hands together with a calm demeanor, yet bares a face of awe. His eyes are different as they are zoned out, his pupils blending with his irises perfectly to an emerald green color from the levels of energy flowing freely through his body. It is unlike anything Shadow has ever seen. Never before has Shadow come across a being so in tune with the Chaos Force, mixing together in perfect harmony. Upon meeting Kurt for the first time, he could not see anything more than a red hedgehog that probably came from poverty and nothing more, but upon that hedgehog coming into contact with one of the Chaos Emeralds, his original thoughts were proven wrong. His decision to train Kurt wasn't just because he could make a Chaos Emerald glow, and it wasn't just how much energy emanated from him at that moment.

What he saw that caught his eye was potential.

Shadow could sense the amount of energy that is resting dormant inside of Kurt's body, just waiting to be tapped into, and he has never seen anything like it before. He has seen the potential of others, such as Knuckles, who constantly stands and guards the Master Emerald on Angel Island, and Sonic, whose potential is staggering in its own right, and Shadow thought he would never see anything top that.

That is, until now.

The amount of potential that resides within Kurt is larger than any other being, including Sonic. Shadow does not have to worry about Sonic's potential because Sonic has been exposed to the power of the Chaos Emeralds for quite some time, and his strong will and sense of justice prevent him from falling to temptation. He knows how similar his counterpart is to him, and he knows that he could easily learn how to harness Chaos energy in a way similar to him, and yet chooses not to pursue this path of power because he is satisfied with what he already has: his speed.

But Kurt on the other hand, he is not too sure about. He does not know him very well, he seems rather withdrawn, as if he has been used to a harsh life before. He senses a desire, to become stronger, to take back something he lost. His potential is much higher than Sonic's, and he dare think it challenges his own, and with desires such as his mixed in, Shadow is only left in a cloud of uncertainty. He cannot allow something with this much potential to be left untamed, so he resolved to solve the problem before it became one.

"So what now?" Kurt speaks up again, completely lost within his subconscious. Shadow is at first startled because Kurt spoke so suddenly without any clues from body language that he was going to speak up, so he is secretly thankful that Kurt can't see him right now.

"Now that you found the source of your energy," Shadow instructs him, "you must bring the energy to the surface."

"And how do I do that?"

"You have to mentally pull it from the pool and imagine it flowing to your palms. It requires much concentration, for this is not exactly easy for beginners."

"You don't say…" Kurt begins to show signs of strain as his face scrunches up, concentrating on the source of Chaos energy, but Shadow watches as clarity returns to Kurt's eyes, as well as colors returning to their original state. "Gah, dammit, I lost it!"

"Try again." Shadow simply states. "Then, work to pull the energy out of you."

Kurt has no good basis to judge time with, but seeing the sun reaching the top of its arc hours later is a good sign that he has been at this for some time. He feels tired, and he just wants to go home, but he is sure that Shadow won't let him do that until he can produce Chaos energy from his own hands. He has gotten better at locating the pool of energy within him from each time he lost concentration, and he can suddenly feel energy as if it is flowing through his veins, and he strains to bring it forth.

At long last, there is a sudden spark that comes from in front of Kurt's palms. Shadow takes note of this. Then, more sparks begin to appear, and eventually, a small ball of green energy appears before Kurt. Shadow seems rather pleased by the progress made. "Keep going, make it bigger."

Kurt is straining to the point where he feels like he is going to get a migraine, but he pushes on, pulling as much energy as he can and pushing it forward and out of his hands. The ball slowly starts to grow in size, and before long, it is about the size of a softball.

"Hmph, not bad." Shadow states, internally impressed by Kurt's progress. Kurt barely allows one of his eyelids to take a peek in front of him, and he can see the ball of energy floating in front of him. Kurt immediately feels proud of himself, amazed by what he was able to do. But now, he's got this ball of energy in front of him, and he doesn't know what to do with it. "So…what now…?"

"Now you let go of your concentration. It will dissolve on its own and return to its original state of invisible energy."

Kurt thinks that he hears bells ringing upon hearing Shadow say this, as he has been waiting to hear that all day. He finally stops straining, relaxing where he sits as he watches the ball disappear before him. He pants heavily as he sits back, sweat dripping down his forehead from the stress.

"Now, do it again. Do it successfully nine more times."

 _Oh, for fucks sake!_ Kurt curses Shadow in his head as he refocuses to find his energy source within himself once more, a process Kurt has become too familiar with over the course of the day.

* * *

With the sun setting at the Mystic Ruins, Sonic and Tails are starting to become a little concerned about their red friend.

"Hmm…I wonder when Kurt and Shadow will be getting back." Tails finally says aloud.

"You're telling me." Sonic replies, rather annoyed by Shadow's action earlier this morning. "They've been gone all day! I'm tempted to go out and find them myself!"

"Uh Sonic, knowing Shadow, I'm pretty sure that he would have taken Kurt to a place where they wouldn't be disturbed."

"Heh, well they've been gone a long time, so I might as well-" But before he can even finish his sentence, a flash of light appears before them, and Shadow and Kurt appear before them, Shadow holding the emerald up in the air, and Kurt looking like he just ran a couple of marathons. Sonic continues his sentence a little differently, "…stick around for a while. Hey guys, what took ya so long?"

Shadow huffs at Sonic. "Learning how to manipulate Chaos energy is not as simple as sleeping, Faker. It requires a lot of time, patience, and practice to master it, things you have none of. If you could stand still long enough, maybe you could learn a thing or two and actually be useful in a fight."

"Hey! Who's the one that still can't beat me in a race?"

"Sonic," Tails points out, "that really doesn't have much to do with anything right now."

"What?!" Sonic is shocked by Tails' words. "Tails, why are you taking _his_ side?! You're supposed to back me up here!"

"Hmph, this argument is pointless." Shadow scoffs as he turns to Kurt. "Now, you must remember everything that I taught you today and continue to practice your abilities. I will be back soon to continue your training." Holding the emerald up again, he shouts, "Chaos CONTROL!" and he teleports away, leaving Kurt, Sonic, and Tails as the only ones in the house.

"Got it…" Kurt finally speaks up, holding two thumbs up in the direction Shadow was, obviously intending to tell him that.

"Well, how about that!" Sonic speaks to him as Kurt turns to look at him. "You survived a whole day with the Shadster! I couldn't stick around him for more than an hour if I wanted to!"

 _I can only wonder why…_ Kurt thinks to himself, having learned Sonic's style fairly well over the last few days.

"So how did it go?" Tails asks him. Kurt is happy to answer this question.

"Well, it was alright, I suppose. He taught me the basics of how to create balls of Chaos energy."

"Anything else?" Sonic asks a little too eagerly, not taking into consideration how tired Kurt seems to look.

"Well, it took me about a quarter of the day just to be able to get to the point where I could create a ball of energy, and trying to do that took forever as well! It's not easy to do, you know!"

"Yikes!" Sonic jumps, stepping back a step. "Sorry I pinched a nerve there!"

"It's fine, I'm just tired is all...sorry for snapping."

"Well, what can you do?" Tails asks. "You said that you could create energy spheres, right?" When Kurt nods to this, he continues, "Well, why don't you show us what you can do?"

Kurt feels rather worn out and doesn't want to do it again, but he decides that he owes them that much. "Oh, alright." Kurt takes a deep breath, raising his hands out in front of himself. Kurt concentrates, looking to find that well of energy within him that he has worked hard to locate throughout the day. Once he locks into the source, his eyes grow tense as he starts straining once more in concentration, trying to bring the energy to the surface and out of his hands. As soon as he finishes, he is able to summon the ball of energy in front of his hands, and Sonic and Tails are bewildered by what they see. Their new friend is able to create balls of energy through the power of Chaos!

"Wow! You can do that?!"

"Just barely, but yeah…" Kurt struggles to speak as he holds his concentration, tired from all of the training he has endured that day.

Sonic lets off a sharp whistle. "That's tight!"

At last, Kurt lets the ball disappear on his own as his hands drop, panting and tired, but happy to hear that they approve of his abilities. "Hah…thanks Sonic. Man, that really…takes a lot out of me…I think I'm gonna…head on up to rest…"

"Go on ahead," Tails ushers him out of the room, "you look like you could use it!"

"Thanks, Tails…" Kurt murmurs as he slowly and sleepily climbs the stairs to head to his room, where his comfy bed awaits him. "Night, guys…"

"Good night, Kurt!" Sonic and Tails call back as they hear the door close behind him. Sonic begins to think out loud as he looks at his hands. "Hmm…I wonder if _I_ could do that…"

"You might be able to." Tails responds. "But it would probably take longer for you to do it, since the reaction Kurt gets from the emerald is stronger than yours. You'd probably have to work on it for some time in order to be able to be as good at it as Shadow."

"Heh, I don't need to make laser arrows out of thin air like that Faker! I can still kick anyone's butt anytime I want to with my own two feet!"

Tails just shakes his head and walks away, heading back downstairs as he talks to himself. "Oh, you and your ego can be overwhelming. It's probably the one thing that Eggman could never hope to beat."

* * *

The next day, Kurt woke up with the anticipation that he would be going with Shadow once more to do some more training, but when he came downstairs, Shadow was nowhere in sight, so Kurt proceeded to make his breakfast, expecting Shadow to teleport in at any time. But Shadow does not come. That's when Sonic makes his appearance.

"Yo Kurt, you aren't off with Shadow?" Sonic asks him curiously.

"I was expecting him to be here," Kurt answers, "but he must be doing something more important right now or something."

"Speaking of important stuff, Vector came by yesterday wondering where you went."

"Oh, that's right!" Kurt remembers, his mood brightening as he remembers that he now has a job. "I suppose I'd better go ahead and head on over there!"

"Yeah, just take the train. It's just down the beach from here a little bit, it'll take you straight into Station Square."

"Got it." Kurt says as he heads out the door. "I'll see you later then, I suppose?"

"Be good at school, dear!" Sonic teases him in a rather strange way that makes Kurt look back at him with a face of disbelief. "I'm just kidding! I'll see you later on!" Kurt shakes his head as he chuckles and heads out the door.

 _Sonic sure is strange sometimes..._

Just as Sonic had said, the train station is just down the beach from the house about half of a mile. It is a small station, holding a roof above the platforms and the tracks, and there is a train waiting to take passengers into Station Square. He takes his time as he climbs aboard and takes a seat near the door. When Kurt takes a glance around, he can see a few people staring at him, probably bewildered by the sight of a red hedgehog. Kurt assumes that they are used to seeing Sonic every now and then, but that they are probably surprised at the change of scenery. Kurt, feeling nervous, decides to close his eyes and pretend that no one is there with him.

The train soon pulls out of the station, and they are passing through the countryside, filled with grassy plains that stretch far away until stopped by a forest of trees. Some pastures can be seen out here, with cows grazing in the fields, unconcerned by the events around them. Kurt likes the beauty of this place, and he silently wishes to himself that he could have his own place out here, and have a house as big as the one Sonic and Tails have. When he thinks about that, he actually doesn't know what he would do with all of that space, but he is sure that he could figure something out.

Just when Kurt is about to fall asleep, a young human girl, no more than five, walks up to Kurt, eyeing him curiously. She is curious about the way he looks. "Mister Sonic?" She finally speaks up. Kurt notices the closeness of the voice, so he can't help but feel like whoever is talking is talking to him. He opens one eye slightly, and he notices the girl standing in front of him. "Mister Sonic, why are you red? Is it because you're mad? I was told that people turn red when they're mad." The girl asks him curiously.

Kurt cannot hold back a silent laugh in surprise of the girl's question. He does not blame the girl for mistaking him for Sonic, since he has noticed that he and Sonic look somewhat similar in shape. He decides to play nice with her, since he knows that she is innocent because she is so young. "That's because I'm not actually Sonic. But I am a friend of Sonic's."

"You are?" The girl seems surprised by this.

"Uh-huh. My name is Kurt the Hedgehog, what's yours?"

"Amanda. What do you do, Mister Kurt?"

Kurt assumes that she is referring to what he does for his job, so he answers truthfully. "Well Amanda, I'm a detective. When things or people go missing, it's my job to find them."

"So you're a good guy?" Amanda asks.

"That's right, I'm a good guy. I sometimes have to stop bad guys as well."

"That's so awesome! I want to be just like you when I grow up!"

Because of this running conversation, Kurt completely loses track of time and where they are, and he is surprised that they have reached a stop on the train route, but it is not quite Station Square yet. A woman proceeds to get up and take Amanda's hand. "Come along now, Amanda, we have to get off here."

"We do?" Amanda asks who Kurt assumes to be her mother.

"That's right, we _do_ , dear." Kurt senses a tiny bit of hostility in the sound of her voice, and when he glances up, he can see the woman looking down at him with eyes that reciprocate the tone of her voice, something Kurt identifies as disgust as they both depart the train. Because of this, he can't help but feel sad as his ears droop down and his back arches a little more. The only thing in his head is the sight of the woman's gaze of hate raining upon him, leaving him wondering why there are humans that don't like Mobians out in the world. It is a look that he has seen far too often in his life, and it brings back some old memories he prefers to keep repressed.

The next stop soon arrives, and it is for Station Square. Kurt hops down from his seat and walks out of the train. He follows the crowd of people outside of the building, where it seems like everything towers above him.

 _Now, if I can find where the attack was two days ago, I should be able to find my way from there._ Kurt thinks to himself, now scoping out the city for the office.

He finds it troublesome to find out where he even is in the city, so he stops to think about how to get there. _I remember the name of the street it was on, so maybe I could ask someone how to get there._ And that is what Kurt does, and he is told the direction that he needs to head, so he repeats it in his head multiple times as he travels in the direction pointed. Before he knows it, he has found the street that he is looking for, only to find that it has been blocked off by caution tape with workers inside clearing up the damage that was done two days ago.

 _This is where I saw the attack the first time._ Kurt notes. _So that must mean…_

When he looks over to his left, he sees a small, two-story house about a block down from where he is standing. _Bingo._ He successfully maneuvers his way through the crowd and makes it to the house. He assumes that it will be just fine if he enters the house without knocking, so he pulls the door knob to the side and pushes the door open. Upon entering, he sees Charmy zipping around the room, laughing it up like a lunatic.

"You can't catch me, you can't catch me!" He chants as he is followed behind by Vector, who seems highly annoyed.

"Charmy, knock it off right now!" He roars. "You're acting like an immature brat!"

"Why don't you come and make me!" Charmy fights back, continuing to avoid Vector's grasp. Kurt shuts the door, not knowing what in the world is going on. That's when Espio decides to walk up.

"Glad to see that you could join us." Espio greets him. "Sorry that it wasn't good timing."

"What is going on with Charmy?" Kurt asks curiously, ducking to avoid the bee running into him, and moving aside when Vector comes storming through.

"Sugar rush. He had one chocolate bar too many, and now we can't catch him to calm him down."

"Oh, great." Kurt sarcastically sighs. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since eight-thirty." Espio tells him. Kurt investigates the clock to check the current time. Just a few seconds before ten.

"Well, if it's been one and a half hours since he consumed it, I will assume that he's been doing this the entire time, right?" When Espio nods, Kurt continues, "Now, don't call me an expert on the anatomy of bees, but if he's been continually going at it for that duration of time, he would surely be burning several calories, all that would be replenished by the sugar that he ingested. Given his body size, the amount of time it's been since he ate the bar and his activity level, I would assume that he would crash from the lack of sugar fueling his energy right about…"

Just as he is saying this, Charmy suddenly comes flying right towards him, but he suddenly loses flight and his eyes close as he tumbles to the ground, only to land in Kurt's arms in front of him.

"…now." Kurt finishes his conclusion. Espio is surprised that Kurt was able to predict Charmy's crash before it happened. Vector walks in, having heard what Kurt said, and he is surprised as well.

"How did you do that?" Vector questions him. "How did you know that he was going to crash like that?"

"Elementary, my dear Vector." Kurt cheekily grins and winks at them.

"That was impressive, Kurt." Espio congratulates Kurt. "You certainly are observant."

"So where were you yesterday, anyway?" Vector asks. "Something to do with Shadow?"

"Yeah." Kurt explains. "Sonic told Shadow about how I'm a Chaos User, and after showing him how the emerald reacts to my touch, he decided to teach me how to use my abilities. So I was with Shadow all day yesterday as he was training me to use my powers. I was assuming that we would be continuing from where we left off yesterday this morning, but he didn't show up. But I'm sure that he'll be back soon enough."

"You're training with Shadow?" Espio questions, to which Kurt nods and responds again. "I'm not sure what we'll cover in the next lesson, though. Probably just honing in the technique, I guess?"

"So can you make Chaos attacks like he can?" Vector asks rather excitedly, to which Kurt hates to be the bringer of bad news.

"Eh, not quite yet, no. All I can do right now is produce a small ball of energy, which is really no easy task. I'd demonstrate, but it wears me out rather quickly, and given that we're already one member down, I think it would be best if we kept our numbers as it is. There's work to be done, right?"

"That there is, my boy!" Vector proclaims as he walks behind his desk and pulls out a couple of files from the cabinet. "Here's a list of clients who are asking for our help. Take a look at what needs to be done."

Kurt takes a look at the files presented, but they all seem like simple tasks, such as missing items or pets. Kurt is slightly disappointed by what he sees. " _These_ are the kind of requests you get?"

"Hey, don't be picky, kid," Vector snaps, "we take what we can get!"

"I apologize for being rude, it's just that this is not what I had expected to see. I guess that my standards by what I did in Metal City were pretty high. Sorry, I guess that I was just expecting something a bit more challenging, such as missing people."

After a few seconds, Kurt assumes that Vector is going to blow a gasket or something and fire him on the spot. Instead, he is surprised by a smirk on the crocodile's face. "I knew I made the right decision on adding you to the team." He tells Kurt. He digs through his filing cabinet once more. "I haven't got much, but I've got one that might meet your standards."

Kurt, a little more excited by what it could be, says, "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's hear it!"

* * *

Kurt is not contacted by Shadow once over the next couple of days. Utilizing this time, he puts his focus into his work with the Chaotix. The missions that they are given are all completed in record time thanks to Kurt applying his old tactics to their advantage. Their pay is good, but because Kurt has now joined them, the money is split up into quarters rather than the thirds that they were used to. But they don't mind, as long as Kurt puts in his share of the pay for the rent.

The quartet gather up together around the desk in the office, where Vector places a stack of cash they earned from their last case.

"Well boys, that's another job well done!" Vector announces. "Another happy client means another happy reward!"

"No doubt it's thanks to Kurt's special powers!" Charmy adds, feeling all giddy that they did a good job and got a good amount of money for it.

Kurt chuckles lightly at how silly Charmy seems to think. "Ha…Charmy, I've already told you that I haven't been using my powers at all on these cases. I haven't had enough training to be able to use it to help me out here! Everything I have done has been based on prior work experience."

"Even so, your work ethic is impeccable." Espio further compliments him. "Your efforts to the team have been highly valuable and very useful."

"Yeah, I bet it's nice to have someone else with keen eyes on the team, huh, Espio?" Kurt infers with a sly look on his face that causes Espio to flash a grin before anyone could catch it.

"Anyway," Vector slides a small sum of the cash over to Kurt, "here's your cut, Kurt, but don't forget that even though you don't live here, you are still a Chaotix member, so you've also got to pitch in to help with the rent!"

Kurt laughs as he pockets his sum and heads out of the house. "Don't worry, boss, I won't! I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

Now, Kurt takes to the streets, proceeding to walk down his usual route to go back home to the Mystic Ruins. By now, Kurt has figured out the route he needs to take in order to get to the agency from the train station. He is learning to get a pattern down to adjust his route depending on the traffic that roams the streets in the day. It has made it helpful now that the road which Eggman attacked was reopened, as it cut down his commute time by quite a lot of time. He is further enjoying the sights to behold as he takes the train back to the Mystic Ruins as well, secretly wanting deep inside to run free through the grassy plains before him. As soon as he reaches his stop, he strolls along the beach, whistling a tune that Sonic had gotten stuck into his head. He summons three balls of Chaos energy and begins to juggle them in his hands along the way.

In addition to his work, Kurt remained faithful to his promise to Shadow, and he continued to practice his Chaos abilities whenever he got a chance. Slowly over time, he has become able to summon balls of energy with ease, and he can even summon up more than one at once as well. He is rather proud of himself for being able to accomplish this.

Pleased to see the house appear around the corner, Kurt looks forward to crashing on the couch and napping until the others return for dinner. It is only a little after mid-day, but Kurt does feel very tired, and he is thankful that Vector let him check out early. He opens the unlocked door, pleased to feel the cool air from the AC hitting his face as he walks in. "Hey guys, I'm ba-"

But when he looks into the house, he sees Shadow standing in the living room. It appears that Shadow has been waiting for Kurt for some time. "You have kept me waiting for longer than I would have liked." Shadow antagonizes Kurt, who is surprised by who he sees in front of him.

"Shadow!" Kurt utters. "I was expecting you to be back a few days ago! Where have you been?"

"I was on assignment by G.U.N. My duties prevented me from continuing until the mission was complete, so now we will continue on with your training."

"Whoa, hang on a minute there, Shadow." Kurt states as Shadow approaches him. "I just got back from my own job, can't I get a-" Kurt does not have time to register what just happened until it was over, and he sees that he is on the island that Shadow brought him to before. Realizing what had happened, Kurt sighs as he finishes his sentence. "…break first?"

"You have had enough time to rest since the last time we were here. The only time we will stop now will be for meals and to rest at night."

Kurt seems highly annoyed by this. "Oh come on, Shadow! I just got home after getting off a case and I'm worn out!" Kurt is hardly able to even register Shadow maneuvering behind him at incredible speeds before he is roundhouse kicked in the back of the head, sending him face first into the sand, gaining a mouthful as well. "Ugh, blech!" He spits out the tan crystals from his mouth. "What the hell, Shadow?!"

"You need to be able to counter that attack." Shadow tells him. "Over the next four weeks, we will train nonstop until you can put up a good fight against me."

" _Four weeks_?! But what about my friends, my _job_?!"

"I have left a message behind to inform them of your leave of absence."

Kurt doesn't like this idea of suddenly basically dropping off of the face of the planet to go out into the wild for _four weeks_ in order to hone in his Chaos abilities. "I don't know, Shadow…"

"You no longer have a choice. You will fight for survival as you train to become a stronger Chaos User, starting now."

 _Oh great…_

This is all Kurt can think as Shadow proceeds to lunge at him.

* * *

 **A/N: Yikes, this came out a little later than I intended for it to. Sorry to say** **I'm gonna have to slow down on this a little just for sanity's sake and so I can try to create quality content (or as close to it as I can get). I've been starting on another story involving Infinite that I would like to hopefully release sometime this year, I just need to actually finish the plot and dialogue before I get to writing the actual thing. It's essentially a redemption fic, so basically it's what everyone else is doing right now?**

 **So yeah, I'm not sure when the next update is gonna be, but keep checking each weekend because I'm going to try to stick to posting new chapters on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. I just need to take a short step back from this and come back to it when I'm ready. No, this does not necessarily mean I'm taking a hiatus, I just need to slow down a little and spend some more time to do stuff outside of this story because that's all I've focused on for the last two or three months. I need to get back into my main groove with music and composition. But don't worry, I'll be back soon enough, and I'll probably update you on that Infinite story I'm developing! In the meantime, you are still free to message me about anything and I'll get back to you in the next update! Or if you'd want a quicker answer, hit me up on Tumblr!**

 **Just curious, but how are you all enjoying the story? Please feel free to leave a review of what you think about the story so far, and if you're liking it, make sure to hit the follow button so you'll know when the next update comes out! (God I feel like a YouTuber :P)**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What:**

 **Kurt finds out how difficult being a Chaos User is**

 **as Shadow's intense training begins…**


	7. How to Train Your Hedgehog

**Aaaaaand we're back!**

* * *

Chapter Six: How to Train Your Hedgehog

Tails is not feeling so great. He has just arrived back home after a long day at G.U.N. he had not expected. He was told previously that he would not likely be needed for some time, and so he was expecting some time all to himself and to relax in his standard fashion. He does enjoy handling anything mechanical or electrical, but it's tiring to work on the same projects for so long, so it's nice to finally get a day away from it all to just sit back and soak in the sun. He is at times a work-a-holic, but Sonic has taught him in the past when he really needs to just let go of everything and just take a nap.

No, instead what happened was that there was some kind of server crash in their database and they had no idea as to how they should repair it, so they called him at 4:37 in the morning to tell him that they need his help. Now Tails is very calm, but had he not been then it wouldn't have played out so nicely, maybe broken something in the process. But fortunately for G.U.N., he is, and so he made his way over to their HQ (but not without taking his sweet time of course, he isn't that kindhearted anymore, how dare they wake him up before dawn), where he finds everything in disarray. The first thing he did was sigh and ask for his coffee.

Now, arriving back home, he feels as if he caught a cold from someone, so he's made sure that he does _not_ come in for at least a week because he doesn't want to "spread germs", which is partially true. In all honesty, he just wants to use the Sonic tactic and nap the day away. He is not too surprised when he hears how quiet is upon entering the house. It is something he is used to, as Sonic is usually out running and exploring for some new place that he has never seen before, and his newest housemate could still be on his way home from work with the Chaotix. But when he looks at the clock, he sees that it is a little late, and that the last train to the Mystic Ruins would have arrived some time ago, which means that either Kurt is already here but up in his room or missed the train entirely. His answer is found in a piece of paper that sits on a lamp table by the entrance to the kitchen, written in the handwriting of a familiar black hedgehog.

"Oh boy," he mutters, "wait until Sonic hears about this…"

* * *

-*Ian Fontova Valero – The Journey*-

Kurt has not had a splendid start to his day either. He had been warned the previous day about what would take place, and essentially it's Kurt on his own against anything and everything. Shadow said that in order to stay alert, Kurt must enhance his ability to sense Chaos energy, and as a little push to get him going with it, Shadow said he will randomly attack him, even if it's the middle of the night. Kurt didn't want to take this seriously at first, but he was quickly proven wrong when he was knocked out of the tree he was sleeping in by an attack Kurt doesn't particularly like called Chaos Spear. He'll be sure to learn it and later get his revenge.

Thus today's lesson. Kurt has been developing his ability to sense Chaos energy with help from Shadow. At first, Kurt got little sleep because of Shadow attacking him in the middle of the night, and he got attacked again as he was trying to gather some fruit for breakfast. All he wanted was to get something in his sore starving stomach, but instead he nearly upchucked it when Shadow sneaked up from behind and slammed his gut with a hard metallic shoe. Seeing this makes Shadow realize that Kurt still isn't quite adept with his powers yet, as he only got a reaction out of Kurt the split second before he struck. See, Kurt can sense it, but only right before it happens and he can't react quickly enough, which means that he has to stretch out his sensitivity to Chaos energy.

Now, Kurt is standing in the middle of the tropical forest, trying to sense Shadow's location. Their exercise here is for Kurt to feel the Chaos energy around him, try to sense the disturbance and react when he needs to. The disturbance is Shadow moving all about the area, using his Chaos Control to teleport from one place to another, all out of sight from the red hedgehog on the ground. Kurt has been getting better at this task, as he is trying to shut out all the distractions around him, listening not just from his ears, but from inside as well. Now he can sense more than just his own energy, he can feel the life flowing in surroundings a few feet around him. Unfortunately, this is not enough for Kurt to be able to sense Shadow, who is much farther away than a few feet, but from when Shadow was nearby, Kurt could tell that the black hedgehog is allowing his energy output to be increased in order to strengthen his senses.

Too bad it isn't enough, for he senses only too late the approaching attack from behind, a Chaos Spear hitting behind his knees, causing him to cry out and collapse to the ground. Kurt hears a whooshing sound as he picks himself up off of the ground, brushing off the dirt on his body. "You have failed again, to no one's surprise."

Kurt groans to himself, annoyed at how Shadow likes to point out all of his faults, but mainly at himself for not being able to react quickly enough to dodge.

In the later hours of the day, the training switches over to a new skill set, one that Kurt is more familiar with: combat. This is the first training session he has had with Shadow that he has entered with a feeling of confidence. If he knows about anything, it would be combat. He spent several weeks training with the Metal City police force on hand-to-hand combat skills, and the trainers were regarded as some of the best in the country. Many times he had lost matches to his first trainer back when he was 14, but over time he grew better and his skills improved, until his matches either resulted in ties or victories.

However, he quickly finds out that none of that training ever prepared him for Shadow the Hedgehog. Although Shadow is not using his Chaos powers to enhance anything, Kurt is overwhelmed by how fast Shadow's attacks come at him. He is constantly on his toes, never stopping for a second as all concentration goes into blocking Shadow's attacks. Kurt has had his fair share of fights before, some that were way out of his league, but _never_ has he come across a fight like this one; even the fight against Eggman falls to second place.

One punch comes too quickly and blindsides Kurt's face, sending him reeling into the sand of the beach. He is left out of breath and low on energy, and hearing calm footsteps approaching he knows that he has lost. His body is sore and clammy from his sweat, and all he wants is just to crawl into his bed back home, but alas, that fate isn't meant to be yet.

"Victory is mine." Shadow proclaims as he stands over Kurt.

"No need to rub it in…" Kurt groans as he gets back up to his feet, brushing the sand off.

The later hours of the day are more relaxing to Kurt, or at least it is in a physical aspect. Shadow brings Kurt inland to a glorious waterfall that seems to create a hole in the forest where life flourishes, as birds can be heard calling back and forth over the roar of the falling water. Here, the cascading waters crash down onto the mossy rocks below, creating a pool definitely large enough to swim in. From the rocks that break the surface comes a fine mist that is cool to the touch and refreshing to Kurt, who is hot and drenched in sweat. From the mist appears a rainbow from help given by sun's reflected rays, bringing a little joy to Kurt's otherwise strenuous day. After drinking some water from the pool, tasting minerals he has never tasted before that rejuvenate his energy, he is ready to continue.

Now, he is on the rocks close by the waterfall. He can feel the mist brushing against his fur, the roar of the water deafening everything around him as he closes his eyes, concentrating on the well of Chaos energy that resides within himself. Shadow tells him that like the water from the falls, he must channel his energy to let it flow naturally and free. Despite how cheesy it may sound, Kurt just ignores it and travels into the well that resides within. He has become quite familiar with this vast space, the journey to locate it only taking a couple of seconds and once he does he can pull from this pool with ease. Now, he allows his energy to flow throughout his entire body, he can feel this warm, tingling feeling to travel through his veins of one arm to the end of the other before transferring it elsewhere in his body.

What Shadow sees is Kurt moving his body, channeling a visible stream of energy into a ball he cradles at his side. Then, he opens his eyes, which have turned green from his energy output, and with a grunt thrusts his arms out, casting the ball in a straight line towards the clear sky. His energy calms down, and a smile reaches his face when he witnesses his accomplishment.

"Did I call for you to release your energy yet?" Shadow calls from afar. Any proud feeling Kurt had before has now disappeared with the moment, instead replaced with irritation.

* * *

Kurt discovers a whole new level of agony and strain as the training continues on for the next several days. From sunrise to sunset, Kurt trains with Shadow non-stop, only for meal breaks, and his endurance is highly tested. However, his Chaos abilities are not the only training exercises he gets. Shadow also makes him go through several strength and speed exercises, skills of which he lacks in, and watching Shadow whoosh past every other second on runs eventually turns from embarrassing to just plain annoying. Due to how slow he is because of his heavy boots, Shadow has made Kurt train without his boots, going as far as to hide them away from him one morning, much to Kurt's dismay. As such, Kurt has to continue on with his training barefooted.

Shadow continues to test Kurt's reflexes and fighting techniques, frequently partaking in sparring matches with him. Kurt is getting much better in terms of fighting and sensing movements from Shadow, but Shadow's speed is just too much for Kurt, and as such he ends up losing every time.

Not only is he tested in these skills, but he is tested on his ability to survive in the wilderness. He has to gather his own food for meals whenever Shadow allows him to, and finding and collecting them is difficult enough. What makes it harder is that whenever he is in the wilderness, he is continually surprise-attacked by Shadow as a test to always be on guard. Even when he is sleeping in his makeshift hammock, he is often woken up by Shadow attacking him, which often results in him spending the rest of the night on the ground unconscious. Throughout all of this, Kurt feels like he has entered one of the many layers of hell, as everything he has to endure is torture.

Two and a half weeks into his training, Kurt is on his feet, his arms out to the side and his knees bent as he is in the middle of another sparring session with Shadow. Shadow decided to heat things up by adding his Chaos powers into the mix, only making things more difficult for Kurt. Shadow has disappeared, and Kurt is trying to use his abilities to sense Shadow's location so that he can anticipate an attack so that he can counter and get a hit on him.

 _I can feel him, but he is moving so fast, it's hard for me to tell where he i-…crap!_

His senses suddenly pick up a sharp reading of energy speeding towards him, and he barely dodges out of the way just in time to avoid a Chaos Spear, but before he can even land, Shadow has warped next to him and trips him up, leaving Kurt to land on his stomach rather than his feet.

"Ugh… _fuck_!" Kurt groans as he rolls over and sits himself on the ground. "That's just not fair!"

"You're not moving fast enough." Shadow reiterates to him. "You need to be quicker, more agile!"

But Kurt is fed up with hearing Shadow say this to him. That is all that Kurt has heard for the past several days, and it has grown close to his boiling point. "Dammit, you keep saying that, but I'm moving as fast as I can! I'm not like you or Sonic, I can't run at the speeds you can! And besides, you cheat by using that Emerald!"

"Use your head to think about what you just said and apply it here. You don't need speed to fight, you need agility."

"Wha…what does that even mean?!"

"It's time for the next meal, think on this and prepare yourself for our next spar." Shadow turns and heads back into the trees, disappearing behind the underbrush. Kurt sulks, lying back hard on the ground, his arms crossed over his forehead, tempted to rip out his bangs in frustration. Shadow has proven to get on his nerves as effortlessly as he fights against Kurt during sparring matches. He doesn't believe he has made any progress since he has gotten here, and any he has made seems to be on the minuscule and unnoticeable in comparison to what Shadow says he's not doing right. He has no idea why Sonic is so friendly with Shadow if he gets treated like garbage constantly.

* * *

-*IU – Through the Night (Piano Cover)*-

Far away, the shores of Mystic Ruins are quiet on this night, not a cloud to be seen in the starry sky. The winds are calm and peaceful, and the temperature is just right, perfect for a midnight picnic. Not a soul is about, all having fallen asleep in this spectacular weather.

All except one.

On a hill close to the sea, where a two-story home resides, a hedgehog as blue as the ocean is in a relaxed position on the roof, hands behind his head, legs crossed, and lying back as he looks up into the night sky. For most of his life, Sonic has always been on the move, never staying in one place for very long, his decisions made by his feet rather than his head. As such, he has never really had a place to call home, not until recent years. Ever since Tails started tagging along, he knew that he couldn't keep dragging Tails around with him on these adventures, not when he has his own passions, so as a gift for Tails, Sonic decided to get them a house, one that could suit their needs, allow some friends to come over, but is still isolated and out of the public eye. It does not look like a very decent home from the exterior, but the inside is a major change that brings a cozy feeling to the house. It even came with the large basement which Tails has expanded upon since moving in to hold all of his creations and his supercomputer he is proud to have built himself. Sonic decided that Tails should be able to enjoy his hobby of tinkering while he continues to roam the world as he loves to do, fully trusting Tails to take care of himself.

Sonic has to admit that he has been finding himself sticking around here more often in the past month. Is he perhaps just growing lazy? Has he seen all there is to see and grown bored?

Or is it something more?

This is what Sonic thinks about as he looks up at the moon and the stars. Many nights of his travels, he has had fine views of the night sky, each one just as beautiful as the previous and the ones to come. But tonight, there is something different. It is not the moon, as Sonic as grown used to seeing a chunk of the moon missing. It is not the stars, as none of them have really changed in his eyes. So what's wrong?

Despite the perfect weather, Sonic feels a little chilly. He can tell that something is missing, though he's seen the night sky like this hundreds of times and never felt like anything was wrong. This feeling is strange for Sonic, for it is the first time he's ever really felt it in this capacity.

The problem is that he doesn't have anyone to share this view with.

For the first time while staring up at the moon, he gets this sensation of loneliness that he wishes could be filled by company. He has felt like this ever since Kurt left to continue his training with Shadow, probably on whatever island he said that they went to. Normally, if he wanted to go see friends far away, he would have Tails fly the Tornado over to them, but the problem is that he hasn't got a clue as to where this island is. Sonic also knows that Shadow is actually helping him out for once, and by interrupting would most likely make him unhappy.

It is not a thought that often lingers in Sonic's head, but he definitely misses the red hedgehog he's come to call his friend.

Meanwhile, on an island located a long way away from Mystic Ruins, a small fire crackles on the beach whose waves are also calm and quiet. Beside the fire sits the red hedgehog in question, also looking up to the sky with his legs hugged against his chest, his toes digging into the dry sand, wishing he still had his boots for protection. The bottoms of his feet have built up calluses from the exposure to walking around without any kind of protection. He has only one thought on his mind right now as he stares up at the sky, the thought of his friends back in Station Square. How he misses listening to Tails go on about his newest idea, and even the mischievous misadventures the Chaotix would embark on to take on a case.

But above all, Kurt misses the one person who introduced him to all of these blessings, the person who found him in the middle of a wasteland and saved his life by welcoming him into his home and allowing him to stay with them. He misses the blue hedgehog whose corny jokes and brave heart always seemed to make his day, and he longs to see him and the others again.

Now, Kurt is determined. He is going to work harder to improve himself, so that way he can work his way back to Station Square and the others and show to them that all this time wasn't wasted, so that he will come back a different hedgehog than when he left. With a new fire burning in his heart, he puts out the real one next to him, preparing himself for the long night that will follow.

* * *

Over time, Kurt gains more control over his Chaos powers. His range of versatility has extended, and he is now able to use them on an offensive front. He has also learned how to summon a shield of energy to defend himself with, the same shield that he created when he first fought against Eggman. He now incorporates his abilities into his sparring matches with Shadow, of which he still has yet to beat him even once, but he is able to land a hit on Shadow now, so that always brightens his mood. As an added bonus, he was given his boots back, so now if he lands a kick on Shadow, the steel toe might make things a little more uncomfortable for the black hedgehog.

One day, we find Kurt and Shadow in the midst of a tense sparring match, and both seem to be evenly matched, which proves Kurt's progress. Punch after punch is dodged, kick after kick is blocked, and both dodge the other's own Chaos attack. Kurt uses his Chaos Shield to block Shadow's own Chaos Spear. Every time one is hit, they are thrown back, but each time that happens, they bounce off of a tree or some obstacle and offer a counterattack to the other.

Shadow still incorporates his use of Chaos Control to fight against Kurt, but by this point, Kurt can do it as well, so he considers them even now, despite the fact that he believes it is cheating.

However, Kurt makes one small careless error while fighting against Shadow, leaving himself open for a fraction of a second, and Shadow takes full advantage of that window and uses it to stun Kurt, then kicking him back into the bank of sand. Kurt, who quickly proceeds to get up, is stopped by a Chaos Spear held to his neck by Shadow, knowing that any move by him would mean instant death.

"It is over, you have lost again." Shadow declares as he lowers his attack, the spear of energy dissipating into the air and walking over to their little camp.

"Gah, damn!" Kurt hits the ground with his fist. "I was _so_ close this time! I'll get you yet, Shadow!"

"That remains to be seen. With more experience, perhaps, but you will have to train much harder than we have here if you want to come close to beating me."

"Oh, none of that 'Ultimate Lifeform' crap, I've heard it one too many times and I don't believe in it!" During his time on the island, Kurt has developed an attitude similar to Sonic in a sense, being the one who tries to lighten up the mood and have snarky comebacks, though most times he fails miserably at this, and Shadow just becomes even more distant.

Kurt feels like he is turning into another Sonic, perhaps in order to balance out the light and dark energies. Though in truth, he does it in order for him to feel like Sonic is actually there with them. He is starting to grow homesick, and he really wants to go back home, but he knows that Shadow would just teleport to him and bring him right back to the island, so he never even bothered to attempt it.

"Your training here is at an end." Shadow suddenly announces as he begins breaking down the makeshift camp. "You have been taught nearly everything I know. Now, you must continue to work at improving yourself and become more adept with your powers."

Kurt is actually startled by Shadow telling him this, as he lost track of how long they had been on the island about a week or so ago. "Wow, it's already been four weeks out here? That came and went quick!"

"Now, you are free to do as you wish. You may return to the others and to your life." And without another word, Shadow teleports off of the island, leaving Kurt behind.

"Oh, so I guess he wants me to do it for myself, then…"

He pulls his cyan Chaos Emerald out of his quills, focusing on its energy as he tries to remember what the house in the Mystic Ruins looks like. Once he thinks he has it, he holds the Emerald above his head and opens his eyes.

"Hmm…Chaos Control!" Kurt shouts, and in the blink of an eye, he is gone.

* * *

Kurt soon feels his feet return to the ground, and he looks forward to see where he landed. Just as he predicted, he has teleported just in front of the very house he was aiming for, which brings him relief.

"Ah, it's good to be back at last!" Kurt stretches his back out. Suddenly, he hears the sound of the door opening and banging against the wall. When he looks up, he is pleased to see Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese all rushing up to greet him. He is crowded by a group hug by all three of them, and he can feel Cheese already making his way through his head quills, which makes him chuckle a little bit.

"Oh wow, Kurt, you're finally back!" Amy is the first to speak of the group.

"Heh, yeah I'm back." Kurt answers her as he looks over to Tails. "I take it you got Shadow's note?"

"Uh-huh!" Tails responds. "As soon as I found out, I told everyone about it so they wouldn't be worried about you!"

"Worried? Who would worry about me?"

"I was worried about you the whole time you were gone, Mister Kurt!" Cream is quick to respond to his joke, immediately making him smile.

 _Of course she was…_

"As was I!" Amy agrees with Cream.

"We're all your friends now," Tails continues, "and we all care about and look out for one another!"

Kurt is taken aback a little by how the three of them instantly join his side and tell them that he is their friend. At first, he had begun to consider them his friends, but he didn't think that the bond had established on both sides equally. To think that he is their friend now too makes Kurt feel very special. "Wow…thanks everyone! That's touching!"

He feels a new presence with them, and when he looks up, he sees Sonic standing on the porch, leaning against the support column with his arms crossed and a soft smile on his face, happy to see his friend once again. Kurt returns the smile as he breaks away from the group and walks up the stairs, meeting the blue blur face-to-face, both standing in silence for a few seconds as the sea breeze blows through their quills.

Kurt is the first of them to speak up, though he is quite shy about it. "Hey Sonic…good to see you again."

"Yeah," Sonic replies a second later, "same to you, pal."

* * *

Later on that same day, the two hedgehogs are found yet again on the porch, with Sonic sitting on the railing with a column on his back, and Kurt leaning against said rail on the opposite side, both staring out to the sea. They have been silent for some time. It is assumed that it is just to take into account that everything is back to normal, and Kurt is finally back home with them.

"Things have been different since you left." Sonic finally speaks up.

"How so?" Kurt questions.

"Well, I guess it's just not having to feed one more person around the house, or having someone else to talk to who doesn't speak Geek."

Kurt lightly punches Sonic on the arm. "Oh stop that! That's not nice!"

"Hey, at least I'm honest!" He defends himself as he puts his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, but sometimes, honesty kills, so you could have probably held that thought to yourself."

"Oh come on, you know that I will always love the kid to death! I would never mean to do him harm…on purpose, anyway."

At that last remark, Kurt can't help but sneer. "Hah, chaos I missed your snarky humor."

"Yeah, surviving four weeks alone with Shadow." Sonic remarks. "That sounds like hell, if you ask me!"

"For a while, it was. However, I think he could stand my presence more because I don't act so childish, if you ask me, like _some_ people I know…"

"Hey! Are you calling me childish?!"

"'Hey, at least I'm honest!'" Kurt quotes Sonic's earlier words to him in a case of irony. Following this comeback, Sonic merely grumbles and looks away, demonstrating the exact opposite of what he said he was. This makes Kurt laugh a little and pat Sonic's shoulder. "Heh, don't take it too hard. There's nothing wrong with it. It's what makes you, well…'you.'"

"Eh, whatever…" Sonic eyes do not meet Kurt's, still focusing out to the setting sun over the orange sea. He doesn't like being mocked, so he decides to change the conversation. "Apparently, ever since you arrived to the Chaotix, business has really picked up."

"It has?" Kurt seems intrigued to hear this, as business had been very slow to start when he first joined the group.

"Yeah, though from what I'm told it's slowly starting to dim down since you've been gone for about a month."

"Probably because I'm the guy who's been doing most of the work. I just have skills from a higher field that have really come in handy. If I show them what they need to know, then things will move a lot faster for them and they will be a lot more productive!" Their conversation is interrupted by the sound of something sinister growling at them. When they both look down, they see that it's actually Kurt's stomach craving sustenance.

"Heh, looks like you could learn a few cooking tricks while you're here as well!" Sonic teases Kurt. "You must be hungry!"

"Hey, I can cook just fine, at least I don't burn the bacon by forgetting to flip it over!"

"Well, you still can't cook up chili dogs like I can!" Sonic counters, and Kurt knows that this is a rebuke that he can't fire a shot back at.

"Heh, yeah, you're right there. That I cannot do. Don't tell me you're going to fix those, are you?"

"You know it!" He cheers with a thumbs up and his signature smirk.

"Ugh…I should have known." Kurt sarcastically complains, shaking his head but still smiling anyway. "Ah well, I haven't really had the greatest choice of food recently, so I'll take what I can get. I suppose I'd better get cleaned up then."

"Yeah, go on ahead. I'll get started in a few minutes!"

And so Kurt proceeds into the house, walking up the stairs to take a long-awaited proper shower, as using a waterfall as a shower has not been enough to get rid of the smell that lingers on him. Sonic remains out on the porch, staring out at the setting sun, the thought of Kurt still clinging to his mind. He remembers this feeling he used to have of loneliness over the past month, and it has finally disappeared with the return of the red hedgehog. He is not entirely sure why he feels like this, but he aims to figure out soon.

* * *

While the happiness contagiously spreads about the group in Mystic Ruins, elsewhere is a different story, one that is not so appeasing to many. Normally, it is generally quiet along the streets of Station Square, but even for a weeknight it does not get to be as silent as it is tonight. The streets and sidewalks are barren, hardly a soul to be seen wandering about.

Not a single soul to hear the panting of a panicked young teenager running as fast as he can with his limp, desperate to get out of sight. This teen, a Mobian fox of just under average height, bares nothing on his body other than the tortures he was forced to endure, including the black ring around his tail and red collar, and his burning desire to break away from it all. For so long he did not see a way to escape, no one he knows has ever escaped before until he found out about one who managed to slip away not only once, but _twice_. He can't be certain that this legend is true, but he believes that if someone else could do it, then so can he, and when the chance came, he took it and _bolted_. Several hours has passed since his escape, and although he has yet to leave the city where he has been held prisoner, he has a plan: escape via train and go as far away as it will allow him to go. Anything is better than where he came from.

He knows that he is being pursued, he has seen several shady figures wandering about that could be none other. He can't get caught again, he'd rather die than go back to the hell he was before. Unfortunately for him, he does not know anything about where he is or how to get to the train station. However, luck seems to be with him, as he can spy the station in the distance, and a wide smile makes its way onto his face.

He is taken by surprise when he is blindsided by a swift kick, tumbling to the ground in a daze. He thinks he can taste something metallic in his mouth. He gets kicked again – this time in the chest – and is launched into an alleyway where no light shines. He is held down to the ground by some large hand about the size of his back, while two others proceed to tie his wrists behind his back. He tries to kick and squirm free, but nothing can free him from the weight bearing down on him that hardly allows him access to breathe. He tries to cry out for help, but a fist to his face silences him.

"Y'know kid," the man holding him down to the ground finally speaks up, "you put up a good chase, the best one we've had in a long time. Had to put in some effort for this one."

The fox just growls lowly, saying nothing as he doesn't want to give them the satisfaction of another opportunity to pummel him. Though he still squirms, he is slowly growing less resistant, knowing full well that he's been caught and his escape attempt has ended in failure.

He hears a pair of boots walking their way over to him, stopping right in front of his face. A chuckle can be heard from the figure above him. "Already?" He snidely remarks, the tone of his voice rather unpleasant. "Alright, the word is spreading." With that, the figure hangs up the phone call, moving his attention to whoever else is with him. "Boss man says that it's almost time to move in, boys. Things are about to get good, I guess." Smirking as he bends down, he pulls the fox's chin up so that he can look at him eye-to-eye. All the fox can see through the darkness is some kind of jacket, quills, and a lot of green. "So what were you trying to do, little kid? Hoping to take a ride on the choo-choo?" He looks in the distance to the train station and then back again. "Aww, too bad the last one just left, and it won't be back for a while."

The fox growls again, finding the courage to finally speak up for himself. "…y-you…w-w-won't get away…with all you've done…"

"Ah, but I have hardly anything to do with anything, isn't that right, gentlemen?" The fox grows still and fearful again at the sound of the cocking of a gun. The figure he can identify as a Mobian heads out of the alleyway, while another man comes around from behind, holding a pistol with an attached silencer on the muzzle and puts it to the teen's forehead. The teen hardly even has time to react, he doesn't even hear the shot before it's all over.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, so I think that you can tell how things are finally beginning to pick up, and like the night things are starting to get darker. It's time for the main plot of the story to finally kick in. This story is about to delve into what could be viewed as sensitive material, so if you haven't checked the warnings in the beginning of the prologue or my bio _please_ do so. There is a reason this fic is M-rated, and you will soon find out why if you haven't already guessed it in t** **he next chapter, which will be out next Friday.**

 **Also thank you guys so much for reading this fic! It's been giving me an incredible sense of validity that I have been holding onto over these past few days and I've really needed it. Things haven't been great for me recently and it's brought me down, but it makes me really happy to see that you all are enjoying what I have to offer you, and to that I can only say thank you so so much 3.**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What:**

 **With conflicted feelings, Kurt's past catches up to him,**

 **And now he has to tell Sonic everything…**


	8. The Truth Unveiled

**BlueYusei: Eyyyy thanks man, glad you're liking the story so far! I don't have an official pic of Kurt yet, as I'm still trying to finalize the design of his clothes (also skills lacking in that department :P), but my current avatar on Tumblr is him giving a look you will _never_ actually see from him but I drew bc I'm trash XD (plus he's not wearing his jacket in it either because I was too lazy to draw it [also the design thing]) (also tots an OG character design)**

 **And yes, it is about to get a lot darker, as we're going to get a view into Kurt's past in this chapter, the events of which will set up the atmosphere for the rest of the story, which now has only just begun. (I swear not every chapter is this long either!) I did not put up a specific warning, but just note that after the music link may be unnerving to some of you guys, so just a heads up now.**

* * *

Chapter Seven: The Truth Unveiled

It turns out that Shadow's training paid off in many ways for Kurt. Thanks to his newly enhanced Chaos abilities, not only does it aid him in the field while working with the Chaotix, but it also cuts down on his commute time as well. With him back, the Chaotix gains notoriety and respect, and more cash flows in to all four of them. In addition, they are given tougher cases, something that Kurt is ecstatic about.

Things have been great between him and Sonic as well. Because the hedgehogs have been reunited, their friendship has grown stronger. Kurt has been offered multiple times by Sonic to tag-team on Eggman, but he declines the offer as soon as he sees what Sonic is up against. It's not that Kurt is intimidated by the mech–well, not entirely–it's that Kurt knows that Sonic can handle it solo. Though when he saw Sonic struggling one time, he did throw one Chaos Spear at the mech from a distance; he just really wanted payback for when Eggman tried to kill him before. Fortunately, neither Eggman nor anybody noticed what had happened, but Sonic saw it all, and he gave Kurt a wink of approval. A little flustered by this, a blushing Kurt proceeded to make his way away from the scene.

 _What is wrong with me?_ Kurt asked himself, uncomfortable with this weird feeling in his stomach. _Why does he do that to me?_

Kurt has noticed that his thoughts have roamed to Sonic many times as of late. It all began back when Kurt was training on the island, and there he would often have dreams of the blue hedgehog; they weren't much, it was just like he was there and that was it. What was significant about these dreams was that they were consistent, floating around in Kurt's mind every night and would be stuck there throughout the day, providing a very unhelpful distraction from his training. He simply figured it was because he was homesick and longed to get back to the others. But upon returning, he has found that he was wrong, and the dreams have not stopped. He finds this to be rather strange. None of his other friends affect him this way, so why Sonic, and why now?

* * *

One day, Kurt is walking along a greenway just on the outside of Station Square. Amy suggested it to him after he told her that he wanted to find a place where he could escape from the city life and clear his head. So far, he is fairly satisfied with what he has been given. The greenway runs along a large river with white rapids roaring upstream, a pleasant sound to Kurt's ears. Granted, he wouldn't go swimming and risk becoming a hedgehog popsicle, he just enjoys listening to it from a distance. The fresh, unpolluted air is certainly a positive for Kurt, finally feeling like his lungs have opened up in the winter air. He enjoys that feeling of peace and serenity in the silence of nature.

This silence doesn't remain forever, however. Kurt hears a sudden whoosh and the next thing he knows Sonic is in front of him. "Hey Kurt! Whatcha doing out here?"

"Exactly what it looks like, Sonic." Kurt answers plain and simple.

Sonic seems stumped as he rubs his nose. "Ignoring my question?"

Kurt chuckles as he continues on. "No, walking."

"Oh. Well, where are you walking to?"

"There is no set destination. I'm just walking along this greenway to take in everything around me."

"Hmm, that sounds nice..."

"Heh, you probably wouldn't have a clue what that's like, since you like to live life in the fast lane." Kurt remarks, playfully teasing Sonic.

"Do you really think you know me that well?" Sonic begins walking backwards to face Kurt, who is a few steps behind him. "I love hanging out in nature! Why do you think I run, just for the sake of running? I mean sure, part of it is because I love to run, but I get to go see the most exciting places because of it! And places like this, it just opens up an inner peace, it makes me feel alive, and that's why I do what I do to protect it."

For several minutes, the two just walk together along the greenway in complete silence. Not one person has even showed up on the pathway, which Kurt both likes and dislikes. As Kurt walks, he thinks about what Sonic told him, how places like this are the reason he fights, which bring up memories he doesn't like. As Kurt looks to Sonic, he remembers that Sonic treats Tails like a little brother, so he grows concerned about their bond and how strong it really is. "Hey Sonic…"

"Yeah, bud?" Sonic says, still looking straight ahead of him.

"How much does Tails mean to you?" Kurt proceeds to ask, which causes Sonic to look over with a look of confusion.

"Huh?"

"Just answer it, please."

Sonic holds his hands out to the side. "Okay. Well, he means the whole world to me. He's like my little bro. I'd do anything to keep him safe."

"Would you really? Would you sacrifice everything to ensure his safety?"

"Yeah, without a second thought." Sonic answers in a tone that shows his confusion growing into concern for Kurt. "But why-" But Kurt decides to stop in place, his head pointed down at the ground as and Sonic goes a few more steps before looking back at him. "What's up?"

"Sonic, I want you to promise me something." He utters in a serious tone, looking down at the ground.

"Why?" Sonic is now growing concerned as he walks up to Kurt. "What's got you all hitched up?"

In a swift move, Kurt takes Sonic's hands into his own, looking up so that electric blue eyes can meet emerald green. "I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you will always look after him, ensure that he is okay, and do everything in your power to protect him from harm."

Sonic feels a small spark when Kurt's hands connect with his own, not like a static shock, but something more that makes Sonic's spine tingle, giving him a warm feeling that spreads throughout his entire body. He produce a faint blush on his face. "Why are you-?!"

"Promise me Sonic." Kurt demands, gripping Sonic's hand tighter. "Please."

"Yeah, I promise, absolutely, but why is this so important to you right now?"

But Kurt won't answer this question as he sighs and lets go of Sonic's hands, looking away from him and out to the river. "It's just…don't take what you've got for granted. You don't know how long you may have it for."

"Kurt…" Sonic is now actually concerned about what Kurt is thinking. "…does this have something to do with…your family…?"

Kurt remains silent as he puts his hands in his pockets and walks away, leaving Sonic standing there on the greenway, simply watching Kurt go. Sonic could see when he looked into Kurt's eyes one single emotion: hurt, like he was in pain somehow. He can't help but feel some of that pain pass onto himself. He places a hand on his chest, right over where his heart would be. He is growing worried about the red hedgehog, worried that he's only going to hurt himself more if he continues to bottle himself up and refuse any kind of help.

* * *

The next day, a large storm rolls in, with rain pounding the ground, lightning illuminating the dark grey skies, and thunder roaring behind it, certainly a noise that would have made Tails jump with fur on end had he been home at this time. Fortunately for him, he is on assignment deep within G.U.N.'s base, where the thunder is barely even audible. However, Kurt and Sonic nearly get the full blunt of it as Kurt turns up the volume on the TV, trying to hear what's on.

"Come on, Kurt," Sonic groans from the sofa chair, "there's nothing good to watch at this time!"

"Well, the news is on," Kurt argues, "and I like to keep up to date with what's going on in the world."

Sonic groans in agony as he sags down further into his chair, demonstrating terrible posture. "Ugh, why does it have to rain today…" Now Sonic is not afraid of running in the rain, in fact he takes it as a fun challenge to run into a storm, but due to how dangerous the wind is outside, he decides to heed the weatherman's advice for once and stay at home at Kurt's request…regretfully. As Kurt turns the volume up, he turns to the news channel, where they begin a new report.

"Meanwhile, authorities have recently given an update on a body found along an alley in Station Square." The news reporter reports. "The body has been identified as fourteen year old Thomas Edenborough, a Mobian fox who disappeared from his family and the public eye years earlier. Believed to have been abducted, the young Mobian was found four years after his disappearance brutally murdered with signs of sexual assault and battery. Police have confirmed that Edenborough's case is similar to other cases over the years and over the past few weeks of random young humans and Mobians alike being abducted, only to be found dead years later. No one is yet able to identify who is behind these attacks."

To Sonic, this doesn't mean very much to him, but he is still disgusted by it.

 _Man, that's not cool! I've heard some stories go around, but to see it happen in Station Square is just terrible!_

-*Fesliyan Studios - Panic Music*-

Sonic looks over to Kurt, whose face turns so pale it is like a ghostly white. He notices how Kurt is trembling as he looks to the floor, pupils dilated. "Hey Kurt, are you alright?"

But Kurt does not even register Sonic's words, hyperventilating and hugging himself, in a state of absolute panic as he mumbles to himself, "They've found me…they've found me…they're going to get me…they're going to collect me…"

Sonic is highly confused by Kurt's actions, and he grows worried as he reaches out to try and get Kurt's attention. "Who's gonna collect you? Kurt, what's the matter?"

As soon as Sonic places a hand on Kurt's shoulder, Kurt screams and shoves Sonic away as he stumbles off of the couch and onto the floor. He is in such a state that he cannot even register that it is Sonic in front of him. All he can think is of those who are out to get him. "NO!" He yells at Sonic in his delirious state. "GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU WON'T TAKE ME TOO!" He climbs up to his feet and stumbles out of the house and into the pounding storm, running shakily towards a forest away from the beach.

Sonic starts to run after him but stops at the porch before the rain can touch him. "Kurt, wait! KURT!" But Kurt is long gone, somewhere lost in the rain in his panicked state. Sonic sighs in frustration. "I've gotta find Kurt and try to calm him down before something bad happens!" And risking his hide, Sonic takes off into the storm as well in pursuit of his friend.

* * *

Kurt runs through the forest as fast as he can, but it seems like there is no end to it. He is trying to get far away from where he was, no set destination in mind at the time, but he doesn't even know that he's just been going around in circles.

"Have to get away…can't let them get me…I have to save him…Edmund!"

He doesn't notice a root sticking up a little from the ground, and his foot gets caught up in it. He trips up and tumbles to the ground, sliding through the dirt that the rain has now turned into mud. He tries to get back up again, but his foot is now caught in another root, and he is too panicked to realize this and escape. He sees this as a hand around his ankle, someone trying to pull him back into a building that he is envisioning from an old memory. He is a whimpering mess as he tries to struggle his way free, until a familiar spine-chilling laugh from one of his visions echoes all around, stopping his struggle and making him tear up. He curls up into a ball, his eyes crying waterfalls of tears indistinguishable by the rain that now soaks his body, he relives the scene of his brother being taken away from him that long time ago again and again. Kurt screams at the top of his lungs through the roaring thunder.

* * *

Not far away, Sonic is carefully running through the forest, trying to find any trace of his red friend through the rain. "Kurt!" He calls out, hoping to get an answer back. "Kurt, where are you?!"

Just as soon as he finishes, he can hear a scream ring through the storm, and Sonic knows who it must be. "Kurt!" Sonic calls out once more, but all he can hear is the sound of screaming. So he decides to follow the sound of the scream to its source, and is able to find Kurt on the ground, curled in a ball, covered in mud and shrieking his head off while his leg is caught in a tree root.

 _My Chaos, what's happened to you?!_ Sonic thinks as he frees Kurt's foot from the root and tries to uncurl him, though is struggling to as Kurt squirms underneath him. Kurt tries to crawl away from him, but Sonic tries to keep him from running off again by holding him in place, a _bad_ mistake for someone in Kurt's condition. "Kurt, please, calm down! It's me, Sonic! I'm your friend, remember?"

But Kurt does not remember Sonic. He can only remember the people of his past. "NO! LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARDS! YOU WON'T COLLECT ME AGAIN! I WON'T LET YOU! I WON'T _FUCKING_ LET YOU!"

In an act of self-defense, Kurt raises his quills, pricking Sonic and makes him let go of Kurt, who takes this opportunity to get up on his feet and keep running. "Kurt, wait!" Sonic calls out as he chases after Kurt.

The chase leads them to the underside of a rock face, where the ground is still dry because the rain cannot reach it easily. Sonic finally catches up to Kurt and tackles him into the dirt, this time trying to hold him from the front as Kurt struggles in his grip. "Kurt, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help you out!" Sonic pleads with the panicked hedgehog in his arms. "Please!"

"YOU LIARS!" Kurt screams as he squirms around, light tan dirt clinging to his wet fur while trying to break free, but he can't, even with his raised quills since Sonic's hands are positioned differently. "YOU'RE ALL LIARS! I WON'T LET YOU TURN ME INTO A _SLAVE OF YOUR FUCKING PLEASURE_! I'LL FUCKING KILL ALL OF YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY BROTHER!"

Sonic is shocked by what he has just heard. _Brother? So this must be related to his family! Could it also be related to those abductions mentioned on the news? Maybe this is why he won't talk about his past. But 'slave of pleasure'? I don't know what exactly he means by that, but this must be much deeper than I thought it was. I need to calm him down though, somehow. Hmm…I think I've got just the ticket!_

Managing to secure Kurt with one arm, he reaches up and begins to scratch behind Kurt's right ear. Suddenly, Kurt seems to be slowly calming down, being reduced from screaming and squirming to weeping and trembling. He no longer fights Sonic's grip and instead seems to lean more into him if anything.

"There you go, buddy." Sonic soothes him as he continues to scratch behind his ear. "Just take it easy, take deep breaths. No one is going to get you or hurt you." He is very thankful that he got experience using this tactic by doing it to Tails when he was little.

For once, Kurt actually listens to what he tells him to do, as his breathing slows down and he takes deeper breaths. Slowly, the visions start to go away and he opens his eyes, and though his sight is blurry from his tears, he is slowly starting to recognize his friend. "…ugh…S-Sonic…?"

"Yeah bud, it's me." Sonic smiles, glad to see that Kurt has finally come to his senses.

Feeling that he is no longer in danger, he lowers his quills and sits up, and Sonic allows him to sit down on his own next to him, wiping away the water in his eyes. "Oh thank Chaos…it's you. I thought…thought that…you were…" But he can't finish his sentence as he looks away.

"Were who?" Sonic urges him to finish, but Kurt looks more uncomfortable than Sonic has ever seen him.

"…S-Someone else…" He stutters, obviously hiding something from Sonic, who has grown tired of playing this game with him.

"Kurt, what is going on?" Sonic demands to know. "What is bothering you so much?"

"I can't tell you, Sonic. I just can't!"

"Kurt, you just had a panic attack, and based on everything you've been shouting, I can tell that this has to do with whatever happened to you in the past. I have heard things that I don't even understand. Edmund? 'Slave of pleasure'? Just what happened to you?"

Kurt looks like he is about to break down, tears threatening to fall from his eyes again. "Please, it hurts too much…"

"Kurt, it's not going to get any better if you don't talk to someone about it. If you hold it in any longer, it's going to hurt you even more. I can't stand to see you this way, so please, tell me. I'll listen, and I won't judge. I just want to help you."

Kurt glances over to Sonic, who can see terrible pain in Kurt's eyes again. Kurt feels so conflicted by what he should do, because of how dark his past is, he does not want to have to recall it at all, let alone to someone else.

 _I really don't want to, but I know that he is right._ Kurt thinks to himself. _He knows certain aspects of my past that no one else knows about. Given all that he did to calm me down, I guess that it's only right that I owe him an explanation. He's right, I can't keep this hidden any longer. It's been far too long, someone else needs to know…_

Kurt tries to summon the courage to speak up to Sonic. He takes in a deep breath. "Okay…but please, don't think of me any differently." Sonic nods in confirmation. "Alright, I suppose I should just start from the beginning…"

* * *

-*FIRST PERSON: KURT'S POV*-

* * *

This all began when I was very little. It was just me and my little brother, Edmund. Together against the world, we would always say. I didn't know my parents very well. They both died shortly after Edmund was born. We were never taken in by social services to proceed to an orphanage, so we were forced to survive on the streets. Being the big brother at only two years old, I did what I could to keep us alive.

I did various things to keep us alive. I can recall that I used to go through dumpsters, collecting any scraps of food that might have been left over by someone else. Sometimes I would beg for money or food on the street corners, but no one would even look at me. I was a filthy, homeless hedgehog without a penny to my name, and they all assumed that I must have been the son of crack-heads or something, I don't know. Sometimes when I was _really_ desperate, I actually stole from various convenience stores across the city, only grabbing the first thing I could find and running out as fast as I could in my little bare feet. I am still amazed to this day that they never ended up catching me. I don't know how, but somehow, we managed to get by.

One winter day…or night, I couldn't tell what time of day it was, a blizzard came through, the likes of which haven't been seen in years, and the wind was harsh, nipping at our open appendages, frostbite threatening to slowly claim us until there was nothing left to take. All we had for protection was a blanket large enough for the both of us to wrap ourselves around. It didn't exactly keep us very warm but it did block out most of the frigid winds, which felt like a luxury to us. We were starving more than normal, as it had been two days since the last time we had something to eat.

That day, we were finally noticed by someone, a man. This man was towering over us, and his dark brown waistcoat wrapped around him tightly as snow stuck to it occasionally. "Hey, kids!" The man called out to us, gaining our attention. "What do you think you're doing out here in a blizzard like this? It's too cold to stay outside in this weather!"

By this point, I had come to distrust the services because I believed that they would eventually separate me from Edmund, and I refused to allow it, so I told the man a half-truth instead. "We don't have anywhere to stay." I shivered in the cold, barely able to speak intelligibly. "We don't have a home, and the orphanage won't take us because they are full."

Edmund merely nodded in agreement as he tried to stay as far into the blanket as possible to avoid the cold winds from nipping at his small tail.

"Now that's just not right, to force kids to remain on the streets during the holidays, and during a blizzard, no less!" The man exclaimed with anger. He seemed to be infuriated about the situation that we were in, as he began to think to himself for a few seconds. I didn't know what he was thinking about, but I assumed that it didn't have anything to do with us. It never had anything to do with us. And so I turned away and held Edmund tight in my arms, trying to protect him from the winds and attempt to go back to sleep.

But the man was not done with us. I heard footsteps come our way, and when I looked up, the man was standing there with his hand held out to us.

"You shouldn't be out in this weather, you won't survive the night." He told us behind his scarf, holding out his hand to us. "My name is Javert. Let me take you to where I live, a house that is nice and warm. My wife and I would be more than fine with taking care of the two of you for the night. We will feed you and cleanse you and give you a bed to rest in."

We were both completely surprised by this offer as we both looked at each other in amazement. We both debated what we should do.

"Should we go with him?" Edmund asked me. I should have said no.

"I'm not sure that's the best idea, Edmund..." I answered quietly.

"He said that he will give us food and protection for the night." He was right about that, it was a prime packaged deal. It was perfect. Never before had we been offered this kind of luxury. I was still contemplating this, since I was the one with the final say, when Javert spoke up again.

"Come on, kids." He told us. "You both look tired and hungry. Anything is better than staying out here in the cold like this."

This won me over. There was no denying that statement, because being anywhere else would have been better than where we were at the time. We didn't really know any better and we were really desperate for anything at this point. So slowly and shakily, I stood up, and Edmund stood up with me, holding the blanket around his body while I stood naked to the wind. I could only nod at him.

And so, he led the way down the street, telling us that we were going to head to his car and take us right to his house. I didn't think anything about it. However, once we got to his 'car', we found out that it was a big, white van. We were a little surprised by this. But I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"Here," he told us as he opened up the side door for us, "climb on in."

But I didn't move. I couldn't shake this feeling that something very bad was about to happen, and I didn't know what to do, but I knew that I didn't want to get into that van. See, I was never taught that you should never go into a stranger's van, but I was starting to learn that lesson in that very moment, and I grew rather scared, trembling from not only the cold but from fear. "A-actually, I-I think that we'll be fine on our own."

"Come on kid, think about this carefully. You can't stay out here in the storm, you've gotta get inside somewhere and get warm or else you're gonna freeze!"

But I just can't do it, and I am able to take a few steps backwards away from the van. "I-I think that we'll be able to find some place on our own." I responded, as I held Edmund's shoulder and stepped back from the vehicle.

Javert sighed, clicked his tongue, and shook his head. Something changed about his demeanor that didn't make him seem so friendly anymore. "I guess that we'll just have to do this the hard way, then." He then proceeded to snap his fingers. Before I could even register anything, I felt something pick me up from behind and I was immediately thrown into the van, hitting my head on the other side. Edmund followed right behind me into the van. I was dazed and confused by what was going on, so I wasn't able to see another man climb in back with us while someone else got into the driver's seat of the van and took off as soon as the door was shut.

"Targets collected." I heard Javert say from the front passenger seat, probably radioing to someone else. "Immobilizing and en route to set location."

"Wha…?!" I couldn't process what was happening, so all I could do was slur my speech as the other man came up to me, seemingly holding a hypodermic needle filled with some kind of liquid in his hand.

"Now hold still, kid, and this won't hurt any more than it has to." He told me in a stern voice. And before I could even act, he grabbed my arm and inserted the needle into me, causing me to cry out with pain as he injected the substance into me. I still don't know what it was, likely it was ketamine or some type of knock-out drug, because I slowly started to grow drowsy and I ended up blacking out in the back of that van.

* * *

When I woke up, I found myself in a dimly lit room, laying on some type of mat, and Edmund was laying on his side next to me on his own mat. I still felt sluggish, and my vision was blurry, but I knew that we weren't outside anymore. The wind was not blowing, and it felt warmer where we were. But it was quiet…too quiet for my liking. As I started to sit up, I heard a door open, and I could see four figures walking into the room. They were talking to each other, and I was able to hear what they were saying.

"Ah, so they've finally returned to the land of the living." One of them said.

"The boss will be happy about this." Another followed after him.

"Yeah, he's promising a high price for these ones, too!" A third agreed.

I had no idea what they meant by this, but I felt rather scared being in the presence of these men. "Wh-wh…where are we…?"

They looked down at us, and the man from before, Javert, seemed to answer the question. "You don't need to worry about that, you won't be here long."

"B-But…I thought that you said that you were going to give us food and shelter for the night…taking us to your home…"

"Oh, don't worry about that." Javert laughed at me. "You'll be in a home soon enough, under the service of your new _master_."

* * *

-*THIRD PERSON-*

* * *

"Wait a minute, you said 'master'?" Sonic interrupts Kurt's story, surprised by what he has heard.

"Yes, you heard right." Kurt answered. "They never told us exactly who they were, but afterwards, as I grew older, I finally figured out, and over time it…i-it has scarred me to this day, knowing just who it was that kidnapped us."

"And? Who were they?"

"I found out that they were…they were…" But Kurt cannot finish the sentence, as he bites his lower lip, trembling in fear, and he is very visibly upset. But Sonic has to know the end of the line.

"Were what? Who were they, Kurt?"

After a few seconds, Kurt looks Sonic dead in the eye and in a serious tone, states clearly,

"…They were sex traffickers."

Sonic is horrified by what he has just heard, and his face pales as well, similar to how Kurt's looked earlier. " _What_?!"

"Yes. They were part of this whole sex trafficking ring that branches across the world, gathering up females _and_ males, primarily Mobians but occasionally humans as well, regardless of age, to auction off as sex slaves to the highest bidder. And that is what they had planned for us."

"But," Sonic realizes, "you're here now. How…"

"I got away, but the things they did to us still scar me to this day…" Kurt answers, as he continues where he left off.

* * *

-*FIRST PERSON: KURT'S POV*-

* * *

The things they did to us…I can't bear to think of it, I refuse to think about it because of the pain it brought to both myself and Edmund. All I will say is that I remember doing something to upset one of the men and he threw me into the wall. I am certain he would have gone on to do far worse had one of his friends not stopped him in time.

"Oi, don't go spoiling the gift for the boss." One of the men told him. "He'll have your head if he doesn't get a pure one. Just tie him and the other runt up." Another guy handed over four sets of rope and two long white cloths. The man above me took two pieces of rope and proceeded to tie my hands together behind my back, then doing the same to my legs down by my feet. Then, he took the cloth, which I saw was very oily and dirty, and he put it in my mouth, grabbing both ends of the cloth and tying them roughly behind my head, leaving a taste that made me want to gag.

"To keep him from biting me again." The man said aloud as another man proceeded to do the same thing to Edmund, who was too frightened to even struggle against them. Once they bound him, they tossed him in my direction. He looked over to me, his eyes glistening with tears but probably wondered if I was alright or not. My head slightly rose to look up at the men who surrounded us. It was in that moment that I knew that there would be no way we could escape from there like we were, and we were likely doomed to subject to whatever they were about to put us through.

"This one's rather feisty." One of the men pointed out about me. "I think the boss will have fun with him."

I could only growl at them underneath my gag.

"Now, we're going to have to leave you two alone for a little while." Javert told us. "Don't try to think about leaving on your own, because you wouldn't want to have that repeated again, now would you?"

In all honesty, I really _didn't_ want that to happen again, as I was in too much pain to do much of anything.

"Good. Now, we're going to make a quick call, and then we're going to get a ride to take you to your new master. And I'm sure that you two are both going to _love_ him."

I growled again as I heard Edmund whimper beneath his gag next to me.

"Now stay here and be good _pets_ until we come and get you." They finally walked out of the door, shutting it behind them, leaving us alone in the dark-lit room.

Naturally, I wasn't just going to give up so easily. I wasn't about to let my brother and I get taken away to some other place where someone else would do…bad things to us for the rest of our lives. I began to think. I remembered that hedgehog quills become rather sharp with age, able to cut steel once fully matured. Unfortunately for me, my quills weren't really sharp yet, so when I tried to cut the ropes with my quills, I found that it wouldn't work.

Edmund, however, was another story. He had very sharp quills for his age, which surprised me since I was as one could consider a late bloomer. So I ushered Edmund to hold still while I tried to break the ropes. He complied and raised his quills, and I set to work, trying to break my binds around my wrists.

Soon enough, I found that the ropes were starting to loosen. I was able to break the ropes, freeing my wrists. I heard Edmund give a muffled cheer, but I immediately put a finger to his lips in order to tell him to be quiet. He nodded once he understood, and then the first thing I did was untie the gag around my mouth, finally free of that disgusting taste, though it still lingered in my mouth afterwards. I untied my feet, and once I was free, I undid all of Edmund's binds.

"Now what do we do?" Edmund asked me in a quiet voice.

"Now, we get out of here before those bad men come back." I told him.

* * *

We were slowly making our way down the halls, trying to stick to the shadows and hide as much as we could. I could hear the sound of Edmund squeaking as he tripped over something–I don't know what it was–and he clung to me to brace himself. I looked at him sternly and held a finger to my lip to tell him to keep quiet. Edmund nodded and we kept moving.

For the most part, we were in the clear, as we had not come across anyone while we traveled down the halls, and it seemed like the men didn't yet know that we had escaped.

That was when I was wrong. I suddenly heard yelling down the way we had come. "What the hell happened?!" A man yelled out.

"The little fuckers hacked their way through the ropes and ran off!" Another answered.

"Well, don't stand around here," a third man, sounding like Javert said, " _find them!_ "

 _Uh-oh!_ I thought to myself as I grabbed Edmund's wrist. "Come on, Edmund, time to go!"

And instead of sticking to the shadows, we ran as fast as we could down the hallways, praying to whoever would listen that we wouldn't run into any more bad men. We took every turn that we could, hoping that we would find an exit to wherever we were as I dragged my brother behind me. I could hear voices yelling from somewhere far behind me. I didn't know if they could see us, but I did not dare look back. I was very scared, but I wasn't about to let that show in front of Edmund, I _had_ to stay brave for him!

"Get back here, you cunts!" I heard one of the men yell from afar. But like hell was I about to listen to them.

"Keep running, Edmund!" I called out to him. "Don't look back!"

"Cort-Cort, I'm scared!" Edmund responded with deep fear in his voice.

"Don't worry, Edmund! Just keep your eyes on me! I'll get us out of here!"

Eventually, we reached a point where we had to stop and catch our breath. We were very tired, and I was still sore from when I was thrown into the wall. I knew that this was taking too long, and that it would only be a matter of time before they found us again. I thought to myself that at least one of us should be able to get out of there, so acting like the big brother, I confronted Edmund on my knees and put both of my hands on his shoulders. "Eddy, listen to me, okay?" I told him. "I want you to go on ahead without me and get out of here."

"No, Cort-Cort!" Edmund did not like this idea at all. "I won't leave you!"

"Eddy, they'll be here soon, and if we both stay, then they'll get both of us! I'm going to keep them off of you so you can get help from the police!"

"Cort-Cort, please!" Edmund had a river of tears running down both of his eyes. "I don't want to be alone! I don't know what I'd do if I were alone!"

"You've been alone before, you'll be fine, Brody. Once you get to the police, they'll take care of you and make sure you end up in a good place."

"B-But what about you?"

"Tell them about these men here and tell them to come and get me. If I'm lucky, they'll get here in time."

"But what if you're not?"

"Well…what matters to me is that you are okay and away from these kind of people."

"C-Cort-Cort…" Edmund began to bawl, but I shushed him so that the men would have no idea where we were.

"Shh…I promise, Brody, everything is going to be okay." I told him. "I want you to remember this, okay? Whatever happens to either of us, I will find you again, however long it takes, and I will keep you safe. No matter what."

"N-No matter what…?" Edmund repeated.

"No matter what."

Edmund took his time to process what I had just told him to do. I knew that he didn't want me to do this, and I _really_ did not want to do this, as I was risking my freedom for his, but if it meant that Edmund was safe, I would take on any punishment. He finally seemed to come to reason. "Okay." He nodded. "But please, come back safe!"

"I'll try." I was surprised when he pulled me into a tight hug, probably to keep himself from crying more, and I couldn't help but return the gesture. Something in that moment told me that I should cherish it, which made me feel worse because it felt like something bad was going to happen and that this hug would be our last.

"I love you, Cort-Cort." He told me. It was the last thing he told me.

I didn't want to let go, I didn't want to lose him, but I knew that I might have to in order to protect him. "I love you too, Brody." I let go and push him back softly. "Now go!"

I watched as Edmund began to run down the hall, taking one last look at me before taking a turn down the hall.

 _Good luck, Edmund, I'm counting on you._ I thought to myself as I stood up on my feet and faced back the way I just came from, ready to await whatever fate may have happen to me.

 _Come and get me._

So I stood there, waiting for the men to turn the corner as I heard Edmund's footsteps dim in the distance, until all I could hear was the sound of the light buzzing above me. It was so quiet. I anticipated at any second they would come on up and find me and take me with them, but they didn't. Not another noise was heard.

It was like this for several minutes. I started to grow suspicious.

 _They should have caught up by now. Perhaps they ran a different way? They gave up? No, I don't think that they would have done that._

I began to run through the possibilities of what might have happened, but as each one arose, the more concerned I grew. Suddenly, I had a haunting realization.

 _What if this was all a trick? What if they_ knew _that we'd get out, and decided not to act in order to separate us?! If that happened, then they would go after…_

… _the weakest one of us…_

… _which is Edmund! They knew I'd sacrifice myself to save him!_

And without a second thought, I bolted from where I was in the direction that Edmund went hollering his name down the hallways without a care for whoever heard me.

* * *

-*THIRD PERSON-*

* * *

"That was when I got a bad feeling in my stomach. I ran to get out and find Edmund, only to…to-" Kurt cannot hold back the tears that ensue as his nose grows runny and he begins to sniffle.

This does not go unnoticed by Sonic. He places a hand on Kurt's shoulder, trying to comfort him as much as he can as he tells the story. "What happened, Kurt?"

Kurt begins to stutter as he speaks up again, "T-they set up a trap to block us off, a-and they g-got him! I-I could only watch…a-as they flew off with him into the storm!"

" _What_?!" This story Kurt has shared, Sonic has never heard of anything so horrid in his life!

"Y-you know what's worse?" Kurt says as he looks up to Sonic, his eyes all glossy from his tears. "It's been _ten years_ since I made that promise to him, Sonic. He…he was only f-four years old! A-And after t-ten years, _ten fucking years_ , I still haven't been able to keep my promise! He's been gone for ten years! He's still with them, I know he is!" Kurt's voice grows increasingly louder and continues to crack like a glacier. "And what's even worse than that is knowing what they do, being in their possession for _so long_ , they…th-they…th-they took his _innocence_ , Sonic! They took him away from me, Sonic! He was _everything_ to me, Sonic… _everything_! _They took EVERYTHING FROM ME!_ "

Sonic can't take anymore of this and acts immediately, quickly pulling Kurt into a deep, tight embrace, losing the fight to fight back tears of his own. After many years of hiding his anguish, his grief, and his regret, Kurt finally breaks down and begins to sob loudly, clutching Sonic for support and crying into his chest. Sonic can't believe everything he has just heard, the sound of Kurt's sorrow now breaking the dam and releasing his own tears down his muzzle. He has been rendered speechless as he can't help but feel sorry for Kurt.

 _Those…those monsters!_ Sonic thinks to himself. _How could they do something like this to Kurt?! How could they do this to_ anyone _?! That's just so wrong! I knew that something was troubling Kurt about his past, but I never thought that it was_ this _bad!_ _And to think, what if it were me in his place instead? If they had taken Tails from me, I…I don't know what I would have done. I can understand his situation when it comes to being an older brother, that's just terrible. I can't just sit here and let him continue to suffer like this, I've gotta do something!_

Pulling himself together, Sonic finally finds his voice once more. "I…I can't believe…that they would do such a thing…! That's even worse than anything Eggman has ever pulled! I'm not gonna let this float on by!" Sonic tilts the sobbing red hedgehog's chin up so to gain his attention, seeing how his once pretty electric blue eyes have now become bloodshot from crying so much. "Kurt, I totally understand how you are feeling, and I want to help you! I promise you, I'm going to help you find this ring, we're gonna rescue your brother, and then we will put a stop to them once and for all! That is a promise I intend to keep until the day I die!"

Kurt is startled by Sonic's response, seeing how positive it is. "R-r…r-really…?"

"Yes, Kurt." Sonic tells him, forcing a smile to make Kurt feel better. "No one deserves to hurt this much. Now that I know, I can help you find your brother, too! After all, two is better than one, right?"

Kurt sniffles again, still crying a little, but he has been uplifted by what Sonic has just told him, and leans into his embrace again. "Th-thank you, S-Sonic…! Y-you've been s-so kind to m-me…ever since I m-met you…and all of the s-support y-you've g-given me…I-I don't know if I'll ever be a-able to rep-pay you…"

"It's okay, Kurt." Sonic assures him, resuming to scratch behind Kurt's ear once more. "It's gonna be okay now, buddy. Don't even think that you owe me a thing. It's what you do for those you care about."

And so it seems for several minutes, the two hedgehogs stay exactly where they are, neither saying another word. Kurt has stopped crying, or so Sonic can hear, so this makes him feel like he made progress. Eventually, the rain seems to be toning down as the storm proceeds away from them. "Heh, hey Kurt," Sonic informs the hedgehog below him, "the rain is finally stopping, we should probably get home and get dried off before we get sick. Right? Kurt?"

Upon not hearing Kurt respond, Sonic looks down to see what he is doing, and is surprised by what he sees. Kurt has fallen sound asleep in his arms. The sight of this makes Sonic smile and chuckle to himself a little bit.

 _Didn't see that coming. But gee, he looks so cute…wait, what?!_

Sonic is shocked by his own thoughts, a faint blush appearing on his muzzle.

 _Did I just think of Kurt as_ cute _?! That can't be right…right? Whatever, I'd better get him back to the house and dried off before either one of us catch a cold._

Being extremely careful not to wake Kurt up, Sonic gets up and picks him up, putting one arm under Kurt's knees and another securing his upper body by his outside shoulder, and runs off in the direction of home.

* * *

Sonic almost drops Kurt from laughing once they get back inside the dark house. As it turned out, he ran so fast in order to get back that the air rippling past them acted like a blow dryer and dried the fur of both hedgehogs, leaving it only slightly damp. What he laughs at is their appearance in the mirror, looking like blue and red puffballs. He takes the time to groom both himself and Kurt to get their fur and quills back to normal, of course unable to get Kurt's bangs to stick down, but he likes that about Kurt, because it's the big difference in between the both of them.

He carries the sleeping red hedgehog up the stairs and into his room, placing him down and making sure to remove his soaked jacket, gloves, and boots before tucking him in. "There ya go, buddy." Sonic whispers to him with a smile. "Hope you sleep well."

He proceeds to turn around and walk out of the dark room, but then hears a distressful sound behind him. He sees that Kurt has a disturbed look on his face, his brows bunched up and contorted, starting to toss and turn in his sleep. Sonic is concerned about Kurt's state.

 _He looked just fine while I was carrying him._

When Sonic examines Kurt, it almost seems to him that Kurt is looking for that missing source of warmth that was keeping his body warm a minute ago, while floating in a cold darkness in his sleep. Sonic comes to the conclusion that Kurt must be looking for the warmth he had before that was Sonic's body. After giving it some thought, he finally gives in. "Ah, what the heck…" And so he takes off his own wet gloves, shoes and socks and places them into his own room, closing the door as he walks out and then into Kurt's room, locking the door behind him.

 _Don't want Tails to walk in on this._

He proceeds over to the opposite side of the bed and pulls out the covers so that he can get under with Kurt and pull him a little closer. Upon recognizing the familiar source of warmth, Kurt unconsciously rolls over onto Sonic, placing his head on Sonic's chest and just under his muzzle, while wrapping his arms around him, a small smile now on his face. Sonic feels a lot warmer now that he is sharing his body heat with the sleepy hog, but also in a way that for some reason makes him happy. He's not usually used to being so intimate with anyone, the only other person he'd be this close with is Tails, but something about holding Kurt in his arms brings him a sense of sheer happiness that is so large it would burst if it grew any larger. Sonic chuckles a little bit and scratches behind Kurt's ear to appease him a little bit, and he is surprised when Kurt starts _purring_ on top of him. Sonic has to immediately stop in order to keep himself from bursting out laughing. Kurt proceeds to nuzzle further underneath Sonic's rosy muzzle, which makes Sonic smile even brighter.

 _Ah, I take it back._ Sonic thinks to himself. _Kurt is cute as heck, I can't even deny it._

"Good night, Kurt." He tells the sleeping hedgehog, slowly drifting off to sleep himself. He just barely misses Kurt slowly mumbling his name in his sleep.

* * *

 **A/N: Aww, my little boys are in a cuddle puddle together...X3**

 **But yeah, now you know about Kurt's past a little more and why he doesn't trust anyone. Of course, there's much more to Kurt's story, but that's for another time ;)**

 **[EDIT 2/18: I have got a _lot_ on my plate right now so sorry I can't update this weekend. It's almost done so expect it sometime during the week or more likely next Friday. Sorry!]**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What:**

 **With the help of Sonic, Kurt prepares to take on the ring,**

 **and the Chaotix prepare for the biggest case of their careers…**


	9. The Call to Action

_**UGH**_ **...I am so far behind on this story. Sorry y'all, it's been a struggle for me irl recently with getting any kind of writing or editing done. I'm not really gonna elaborate on what's going on, but I do have a notice at the bottom pertaining to the future of this story that I'd like for you to read.**

 **BlueYusei: Yeah, Kurt didn't really have a great childhood. Nice guess, though!**

* * *

Chapter Eight: The Call to Action

The seagull's cry in the distance awakens Sonic from his deep, peaceful slumber the next morning. The clouds have now cleared up from the sky, revealing the light blue color of the atmosphere. The ocean waves have now calmed considerably, now gently crashing against the sand on the beach.

Sonic takes in a huge breath of air and releases a yawn, but he notices that something is different. He notices some trouble breathing in because something pushes against his chest, something rather heavy. Sonic looks down and is surprised to see what it is.

Kurt is still sound asleep with an arm lazily over the other side of Sonic and his head underneath Sonic's muzzle. Sonic's face heats up at the sight.

 _So yesterday was a thing after all._

But Sonic notices how Kurt appears so peaceful and happy compared to twelve hours prior. The calm, unstressed expression puts Sonic at ease, and although his mouth hangs open a little, he doesn't drool nor snore. Never before did he think that he would sleep in the same bed as someone else other than Tails, nor did he really want to, but lo behold here he is, laying in the guest bedroom bed holding his newest friend in his arms. He previously thought that he would be highly bothered if this came to be, but much to his surprise he is quite content in this position. Quite the contrary, he wants to remain here where he lies, take in the scent of rain that lingers in Kurt's fur and fall back to sleep. He could stay like this for hours and never grow bored, just as if he were falling asleep on a deserted beach.

However, Sonic takes into consideration that Kurt might not be too happy to find himself in the same bed as him _without any clothes on._ So slowly and carefully, Sonic undoes Kurt's arm around his waist and places Kurt's head on the pillow next to him. Now finally free of Kurt's clutches, Sonic slowly crawls out of the bed, careful not to wake his friend up, and tiptoes out of the room. On the way out, however, a floorboard starts to creak. Flinching, he looks back to Kurt, hoping that he didn't hear that. To his luck, Kurt is still sound asleep in a calm, even state. Sonic silently sighs to himself as he manages to clear out of the room and shut the door quietly behind him. He quickly ducks into his room, where he puts on his gloves, socks, and shoes, before heading downstairs to get started on breakfast.

Kurt wakes up on his own a few minutes later from the lack of warmth that comforted him throughout his slumber. He is surprised that he is back in his own room, when the last thing he recalls was being out in the forest underneath the overhang of a rock face. He blushes heavily upon realizing that he is actually naked, guessing that Sonic must have brought him back and taken him out of his wet clothing. The blush deepens when he remembers that he broke down in front of Sonic as well, acting so emotional when that is not even how he usually acts. It is so foreign to Kurt to realize that he had an emotional side of himself. He can't even help but feel humiliated by this action, leaning onto Sonic for support, despite how comfortable it made him feel. At the time, he felt like he could have laid in Sonic's arms forever; it was the first time in so long that he ever felt a sense of security, a sense of safety. Maybe it was that he was so touch-sensitive from so many years of neglect, maybe it was something more. He decides to just get on with the day and head out to work like he normally does.

Not a word is said between the two hedgehogs that morning at breakfast besides to say 'morning' to each other. At the sight of one another, pink hues light up their cheeks, but for different reasons, Kurt for clinging on to Sonic for support the previous day, and Sonic for the fact that he slept in the same bed as Kurt overnight. Fortunately, the silence is broken by Tails as he talks about something Kurt doesn't pay attention to because he is so zoned out, but he does understand that Tails plans on showing some of his inventions at an expo sometime soon.

"Alright, guys." Tails says as he finishes cleaning his plate. "If you need me, I'll be down in the workshop."

"Sure thing, bro." Sonic answers in a half-hearted tone as Tails disappears down the stairs and shuts the door behind him. Kurt finishes up as well, and he proceeds to head out to go to work without Sonic seeing him off, but of course that plan was doomed to fail. "Kurt…"

Kurt freezes in place, his hand inches away from the front door knob. "…Yeah…?" He twiddles his hands, turning around to face the blue hedgehog. He has his arms crossed and bears a stern look on his face.

"We need to talk." But this makes Kurt highly uncomfortable, as he knows what Sonic wants to talk about.

 _This was what I was afraid of…_ Kurt thinks to himself as he gives a sigh of grief. "Do we have to…?"

"Nothing's going to happen if you keep trying to avoid it." Sonic insists. "The only way we can find your brother is to fight back."

"But I—"

"I know what you're thinking," Sonic interrupts Kurt's train of thought, "…and I won't let it happen! We're going to find this ring together, and we're gonna take them down!"

Kurt is surprised by Sonic's determination to help him out with tracking down the ring. He wonders whether or not it would be best to involve Sonic in this business, as it is highly dangerous – even for someone like Sonic – and he knows the risks and their consequences. But he can't help but admit that this is not a task that he can accomplish alone. He knows that Sonic is right, and he can't run away from his problems forever.

He takes a big breath and accepts his fate. "…Alright. But if we're going to do this, we're going to do it _my_ way."

"How does it roll, then?" Sonic's grin shines.

"If we want to try and locate the ring's location of operation," Kurt explains, "we can't go off of trying to find my brother. We'll need to study some of the homicide cases that have cropped up recently and see if we can find another link in between each case that ties back to the ring. We'll need to examine any evidence we can, and in order to do that, we will need to try to work with the authorities, or whoever is taking point in the cases. I'm going to make some calls to some people to try and help us out."

"Well, do it to it!" Sonic holds a thumbs up as he leans back against the back of the couch. Kurt mentally face-palms when he sees Sonic do this. If anything Kurt knew about Sonic before, it was that 'do it to it' was Sonic's corny catchphrase. Kurt walks into the kitchen and takes his cell phone out of his pocket. He dials up Vector's number, waiting a few seconds for the croc to pick up.

"Yo Kurt!" Vector greets him over the phone. "What's up?"

"Hey boss." Kurt responds. "Anything new come in?"

"Hmm…nope, nothing new." He answers after doing some searching.

"Great. Listen, I'm sure that you've heard about the kids and teenagers found dead around the city who were previously reported abducted."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I believe that I may have some valuable information that can help catch the killers, but there's one problem. We need to work with the authorities in charge of them. I'm going to make a call to the station to see if I can get in and provide information and see if we can work out a joint-investigation."

"Whoa, you're looking into a murder case?" Vector seems baffled by Kurt's plan. "You sure about that? Hate to break it to you, but we don't really have much experience with that kind of stuff."

"First time for everything."

"And Charmy? The kid's eight, he shouldn't be getting involved in stuff like that."

"You're right. You don't have to do this if you don't want to, but I would really appreciate the help if you can lend any."

Suddenly all he hears is buzzing and the sound of Vector yelling in the distance. "Hey, I've read all of the detective comics!" Charmy complains through the phone. "I can handle a bit of blood and dead bodies! Let me help, let me help!"

Kurt curses internally. He doesn't want to get too many people involved, and Charmy is one of the _last_ people he wants to receive help from on this case. This is far too mature for Charmy to know about, and he doesn't want to put the bee at risk of becoming one of these victims as well, because he would be a perfect target for them. But knowing the bee, he is gonna wheedle his way into getting whatever he wants one way or another. And perhaps if he did end up becoming involved, it is possible that they can try and censor the details for him so he doesn't have to know what _really_ happened to them. He explains this to Vector after the crocodile finally rips the phone out of the obnoxious child's hands.

"Hmm…I suppose so." Kurt can sense the hesitation in Vector's voice. "But you still have to get them to agree to it, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. Just leave it to me." The call is over just like that, and now the real business begins. Looking up a directory, he finds the phone number for the Station Square Police Department and immediately punches the number in. He takes in a deep breath, trying to ease his anxiety as he presses the dial button and holds it up to his ear. "Hi, yes, this is Agent Kurt the Hedgehog of the Chaotix Detective Agency." He answers as soon as the other line picks up. "I may have some valuable information and expertise regarding the recent homicide cases of the abducted children around Station Square. May I ask who is in charge of these cases?"

While Kurt takes care of his calls, Sonic decides to kick back for a while and lays himself across the couch. His blood is pumping, finding out that Kurt has been pursued by such a vile organization for most of his life bothers him. He normally doesn't let anything bother him, but when it concerns his friends, that's when it becomes personal. It's been some time since he was invigorated enough to want to join in on something that doesn't involve Eggman, and he welcomes the challenge with open arms.

He thinks he can hear Kurt sigh in the other room, as well as murmur something quiet enough that he can't understand what he is saying. "Something wrong?" He asks as he sits up and looks over the couch into the kitchen.

"Depends." Kurt replies from the other room, glancing over his shoulder but not looking at Sonic directly. "Would the cases being transferred to G.U.N. be considered 'wrong'?"

Sonic cringes at the thought, leaning back into the couch. "It'll definitely make things more interesting."

Kurt returns to his phone to make another call, and Sonic just zones out, listening to the sound of Kurt's baritone voice fill the room. Albeit a bit sore from yesterday, it still maintains the husky tone that Sonic enjoys listening to. He finds Kurt's voice rather fascinating, and he rarely ever grows bored of hearing it, almost as if he is running on a never-ending race track.

Sonic sits up and peeks over the couch and into the kitchen, spying on Kurt from afar. He hasn't bothered to take a look at Kurt's appearance since he first met the red hedgehog, and the difference is quite visible now. Though there are still some small ruffles in his fur here and there, they are nearly invisible unless if someone were specifically looking for them. His quills shine more than they used to, and his body looks well-toned. Sonic is impressed by the progress Kurt has made since arriving, he very nearly considers asking what kind of training Shadow put him through.

"Thank you." Kurt finally finishes as he ends the call, relieved as he walks back into the living room. "Phew! Finally, that's taken care of!"

"So what's the plan now, boss?"

Kurt playfully scoffs upon Sonic dubbing him 'boss'. "I'm heading over to G.U.N. to give them any details I can, and I'll see if I can try to make a joint investigation between them and the Chaotix. If you want to help out, you can go over to the Chaotix and explain a little of what I told you yesterday."

"Sure thing!" Sonic hops off of the couch, stretching and touching his toes. "Knock 'em dead, buddy!"

"Ha, sure." Kurt merely responds as he pulls his Chaos Emerald out of his quills. "Chaos Control!"

And in a flash of light, Kurt is gone. Sonic proceeds to head on out the door to fulfill Kurt's order.

* * *

The guards of the gate into G.U.N. H.Q. yawn as they lay back in their seats. Their job is rather simple, anyone with a brain could handle it; just checking the I.D.s of those entering and, most importantly, opening the gates to allow passage into or out of the premises. Not too difficult, nothing to really be considered strange happens at this post. But today, they find this to be incorrect as a flash of light startles them; one of the guards accidentally spills coffee onto his clean blue button-up. They are taken by surprise when a red hedgehog suddenly appears from out of thin air.

"Err…sorry about that." Kurt apologizes quickly, storing his Emerald back into his quills. He probably should have informed them of how he would be arriving. The G.U.N. guards had been notified not two minutes ago that a hedgehog would be arriving in regards to one of their current investigations, but they had not expected him to just teleport right up to the gate. After presenting his credentials, the guards allow him entrance into the premises.

Upon entering the tall building, a woman in a grey dress and matching coat stands out in the open to greet him. "Hello, you must be Agent Kurt, am I correct?"

"You are." Despite how much Kurt hates being in the spotlight, he will admit that it does feel nice to be recognized with respect.

"I must ask that you wear this tag while you are here." She gives Kurt a clip-on tag that says 'Visitor' in big, bold letters. He clips it to one of the chest pockets of his jacket. "I will take you to a conference room a few floors up, where two agents there will meet with you and ask you some questions regarding the cases at hand."

They proceed to an elevator, where they climb up a few floors in near absolute silence, only broken by the sound of cool jazz playing as background noise from the elevator speakers. Kurt is rather relieved when they finally get off and proceed down a few hallways to the conference room.

"My, my, what has the cat dragged in today~?" A smooth, feminine voice oozes seductively, instantly making a pink blush appear on Kurt's face as he stops in place. He looks over slowly, and he sees a bat sitting on a desk with one leg hanging off casually and the other on the desk in front of her, hopping off of the desk and walking slowly over to them, hips swaying and all.

"Agent Rouge." Kurt's escort greets her. "I take it that your last mission was a success?"

"Ha!" The bat huffs. "Flawless, Becky, it's child's play by now! Just walk right on in and take a few files before my nails can dry!" Rouge's attention is drawn back to Kurt, whose throat tightens up. "Hi there, cutie. Haven't seen you around before. You must be new to town."

"Uh…" Kurt is left stuttering and struggling to form words by the way Rouge seems to make Kurt's mouth turn to mush. "Y-yeah, I-I-I…j-just arrived h-here last m-m-month!"

"Agent Rouge, this is Agent Kurt the Hedgehog of the Chaotix Detective Agency." Becky does Kurt the liberty of introducing him to Rouge for him. "He is here regarding information leading to the recent homicide cases we just collected this morning."

"Ah, so _you're_ the Kurt I've been hearing all about!" Rouge says as she pokes softly at Kurt's chest, leaving Kurt paralyzed and unsure of what he should do. "You're living over with Big Blue, isn't that right?"

"Y-yeah, b-but how—?"

"Shadsy just can't shut up about you!" Rouge explains as she gives a little pat on Kurt's cheek. By now, Kurt is ready to curl up in a corner of the room and cry, demonstrated by his fawn muzzle turning as red as his fur.

But then Kurt takes in what he has just heard. "W-wait, S-Shadow? Y-you know Shadow?"

"He's my work partner, I'd hope so!" She responds with a sly smile.

"Anyway, Agent Rouge," Becky comes to Kurt's rescue, seeing how flustered he is getting, "we really need to keep moving."

"Sure thing, B." Rouge replies, then turning back to Kurt. "It was nice meeting ya, Kurt."

"P-pleasure meeting you too, R-Rouge!" Kurt stutters, ready to leave as soon as possible, but Rouge is not quite done yet.

"Hey, why don't you come on down to my bar sometime?" She offers him. "I can get you some discounts on drinks if you want." She then gives Kurt a wink, and Kurt is nearly ready to scream. His face is as red as his fur by now. All he had expected was to be brought inside, answer a few questions, and try to make a deal with them - which is still going according to plan - but now things have taken an unexpected turn and now Kurt is faced with what he thinks is an attempt to flirt with him. Forgive the poor hedgehog if he makes a wrong presumption, he grew up with the innocence of childhood shattered at an early age.

"Uh, s-sure!" He wanted to say no, but the wrong words came out of his mouth. He isn't exactly focusing on what he should say, but rather to keeping his legs from giving out under him.

Rouge has been thoroughly entertained by messing around with the red hedgehog, but decides she has had enough, and so she hops into the air, her wings beating behind her to keep herself up. "Catch ya later, Cherry Boy." She calls as she flies off down the other end of the hallway, leaving Kurt stunned and speechless.

 _Cherry Boy?_

"Anyways," Becky says to breaks Kurt's trance, "let's continue on, Agent Kurt."

"Uh, yes, let's!" He rushes to follows right behind her.

* * *

Kurt is relieved when they finally arrive at the conference room, where the door is already open and two human agents, one female and another male, stand up to greet him.

"Agent Kurt," Becky introduces them, "these are Agents Janet Flood and Clark Banks."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Agent Kurt." Janet says to him as they shake hands.

"Uh—yes, you as well." Kurt responds, proceeding to shake hands with Clark. His cheeks are still flushed from his encounter with Rouge the Bat.

"Why don't you have a seat and we can get started?" Clark suggests, now sitting down in a chair close to the end of the long table. Kurt hops up into the chair and raises it to where he can sit somewhat normally. Human chairs, go figure. "You called us earlier and said that you may have valuable information regarding our recent homicide cases, what is it that you know?"

"I'm not sure how much digging you have gotten into this," Kurt begins, lacing his fingers together in his hands, "but there's more to it than you think. These murders are more than just average everyday attacks, I'm sure you're aware of that. There is a link between each one of your victims, they were all taken and killed by the same people. They are all linked together by a secret underground ring that deals with sex trafficking. They are a vicious group who target almost anyone, mostly young children, both male and female. They usually get them at a young age in order to break them while they're still weak of mind so they develop this idea in their head that they are only meant to give their 'masters' _pleasure_."

Kurt feels the urge to retch upon hearing those words leave his mouth. "There are some who manage to escape their grasp. Unfortunately, those that have tried are, well, probably in your morgue right now…except for one—"

"Pardon me, may I interject quickly?" Janet interrupts Kurt. He turns to look over at the female agent. "It seems like you know so much about how this 'ring' seems to work."

"Yes, and…?" Kurt replies, hoping that she would tell him what she's concerned about. He doesn't like Clark's look of judgement upon him either.

"Well, I'm beginning to believe that _you_ have had some involvement with this ring." Clark suspects. "So what are you, just some lookout who decided to snitch? Or were you deeper than that?"

Kurt is a little relieved to hear this question asked, fearing that it might have been something far worse; he slightly smiles as he answers, "No, I did not work for them in any way. I'd rather die."

"Then how _were_ you involved?"

Kurt tries to explain, but as soon as he opens his mouth, it is as if he has lost his ability to speak, a huge weight bearing down on him. His throat feels closed up, like he can't breathe, what is this? Why does he feel this way? He doesn't want to, yet he just can't help it. His ears droop as he hangs his head. Janet notices this.

"Wait, do you mean to say that you were…a _victim_?" She asks him carefully, trying not to upset him in any way.

"But you said yourself that none ever escaped…?" Clark notes.

It takes another minute before Kurt can speak up again, his eyes glued to the desk. "Yes, I said that all that tried to escape were killed…all but one. I was kidnapped by them when I was a kid, but I managed to escape somehow." He begins to retell the story again to them, but he soon becomes choked up again when he reaches the part about his brother getting taken away on the helicopter. Silent tears threaten to roll down his face, and Janet places her hand on top of Kurt's in an effort to comfort him.

"We're so sorry for your loss." She offers their condolences. Even Clark seems to be taken aback a little by what he has heard. It's a lot for anyone to go through, let alone a seventeen year old hedgehog.

 _Come on, get yourself together, Kurt. Quit your damn crying and just keep going._ He slowly begins to recollect himself, continuing on, though a little bit shaky. "…It was ten years ago. And ever since, the ring has been trying to recollect me, following my trail. I choose to believe he's still alive since his body has not been reported yet. I wished for ten years to find a way to get my brother back, but every time I've picked up on one of these murders, I got scared and ran a-away…" Kurt is losing himself again as his lips start to tremble, so he takes a second to recompose himself before continuing. "These cases you have, this has been happening for the last ten years because of me, because they have been trying to recollect me. These kids are dead probably because of me and my story. The only reason I have the courage to speak up about this now and get help is because of Sonic."

"Sonic the Hedgehog?" Janet repeats.

"Yes. He met me as I was coming into Station Square, and I've been staying with him for the past month I've been here. I told the story to him yesterday, and he convinced me to seek help; he and I believe that the ring would have a harder time getting to me with him helping me out."

"If it would make you feel safer," Janet suggests, "we can assign some agents to protect you—"

"That won't be necessary, but thank you." Kurt declines the offer.

"Can you describe how you knew the ring was still after you?" Clark seems more interested to know.

"Their methods and movements were very particular," Kurt's voice has gained a solid foundation once again, "and I was able to detect their presence through the small slip-ups they left behind. I saw the bodies, and I could tell that they had been former slaves because of marks on their bodies. I always slipped away before they could find me again."

"Where did you get such skills?" Janet asks.

"It's mostly just something I picked up on over time. I started working as a part-time...'officer' in Metal City when I arrived there back three years ago. I was trained by the police force there. As soon as I came to Station Square, I joined up with the Chaotix Detective Agency since it provided me with an opportunity to use these skills."

"Well, we thank you Agent Kurt for taking some time to answer a few questions for us." Clark starts to wrap up, closing up his notebook. "If we need to reach you again, we will let you know."

"Actually, I'm not done quite yet." Kurt says, not moving from his chair. Janet and Clark both look at him in confusion, wondering what else he could have. "I didn't just come to give information and then leave. On behalf of the Chaotix, I would like to request to make this a joint investigation to seek out and disband this ring."

"Oh!" Janet exclaims. "Well, Agent Kurt, not that we don't trust your abilities, but it is not a good idea to get involved in a case pertaining to your own past, it's bad to let bias get in the way of a case."

"I know," Kurt counters, "and that's how I've played it for ten years, look how that's played out. I can't run away from this anymore. Nobody else knows enough about these guys to be able to catch them. It will be much easier if I help you."

Janet seems to contemplate this for some time. Kurt tries to reason with them. "Please, think about the families of the dead victims, and the families whose loved ones are still out there, being used against their will, praying that they will return alive. I owe them this." Kurt's words are followed by nothing but silence. Their eyes are cast downwards, occasionally looking to one another as if there is some kind of telepathic link that tells them what the other is thinking. It brightens Kurt's mood to know they are at least considering his request.

"I can understand your intentions," Clark clarifies, "but we don't have that say. The only one who can give that power is the Commander."

"Who understands the situation clearly." The three are startled by a voice coming from the door, making Kurt jump a little since he didn't hear the door open to begin with. He turns to see a rather tall man in a grey uniform only matched by his lighter grey hair. His eyes are different colors, one blue and the other brown, almost orange. His posture of a straight back with his arms held behind his back makes him seem like he is important.

"Commander Tower!" The two agents immediately stand to attention, proving Kurt's thoughts as true. Kurt, however, remains seated, as he is unsure of how to approach the Commander of G.U.N.. On one hand, previous training would dictate that he stand at attention as well and remain formal with the man, but he has been told by Sonic that he doesn't have the best of relations with the man, and Shadow has it worse. Sonic atones his behavior to that of someone who believes themselves to be superior—though in the man's defense, he _is_ the Commander—but one look into the gaze of the man who towers over him and he can see the demeaning look he remembers seeing a lady on the train with a look of disgust. Though the tone is not present in his voice, it doesn't mean that it's not hidden away. Kurt remains alert, at the ready should anything happen.

Tower looks down onto Kurt. "I was patched in through the phone." Kurt turns back to the table, seeing the black cross-like object right in the middle. "I have heard about you from before. Your reputation in Metal City precedes you, and I will say I find your work impressive. You seek a joint investigation regarding the cases we recently received, then I shall grant that request."

Kurt blinks, unsure that he heard what he thought he just heard, that he _approved_ his request. He is rather speechless as to how well things went. He expected that it might be a long battle for him to fight in order to be included in some way, and just like that, he was able to convince the Commander of G.U.N. to form a joint-investigation with a Mobian-run detective agency. "Th-thank you, sir!"

"You and your team will have access to all of the resources we have to offer to aid you. This information will be processed over to some new agents placed to assist your case. Am I clear so far?"

"Y-yes sir!" Kurt stammers, still surprised that this is actually happening.

"I will survey over you from time to time, but I entrust you to take point in this case, Agent Kurt, as it seems that you have the most experience and knowledge regarding these matters. Your team shall work in the squadron room, so I would suggest giving your agency a call. I wish you the best of luck, and I expect some results soon. Bring these sons of bitches down."

"Count on it, sir!" Kurt is shocked beyond words as the Commander walks out and back to his office. His pupils dilate, but his shock is not of horror, but rather of joy. His elation cannot be expressed in words. He has officially been given the case that has ties to the ring, and he has been tasked to take point as well! He could not have dreamed of something this good! Eager to get started, Kurt pulls out his phone and rings up Vector. "Hey, Vector!" Kurt greets when the crocodile picks up. "We've got the case!"

"Atta boy, Kurt!" Vector acknowledges. "So what's your move now?"

"There's been a slight change of plan, but nothing bad." Kurt explains. "Get the whole team down to G.U.N. headquarters—yes, you heard right—mention me, and they'll bring you up here. I'll bring all of you up to speed once you get here."

* * *

About an hour has passed, and Kurt now sits in the squad room with Janet and Clark as they inform him of everything they have done so far. Unfortunately, they haven't discovered much, which rather disappoints Kurt.

"We've searched the areas for anything that could help lead us in some direction, but we haven't come up with anything yet." Janet informs him. "No clues, no paths, nothing. It's almost as if they cleared their tracks behind them."

"That's because the crime scene isn't where they were killed." Kurt comments as his arms are folded and his legs crossed. "The bodies are dumped post-mortem. They were killed somewhere else in secret, picked up, and then dropped to a random location across the city to throw off anyone trying to catch a trail. Another team would probably remove any evidence from the real crime scene, or at least I assume that's what they'd do. The only things you have that are usable are the autopsy reports, so that way you can determine the cause of death and how long ago each person was killed."

"If a time of death can be determined, it might help out with tracking them down." Clark agrees. "However, if these kids have been missing for years, it won't be as easy as asking when the last time they were seen was. But those bodies had to have been dumped there at some point, and there are several cameras across the city. Find the right camera, and you might get details on when they were dumped, as well as pick up who dumped them and if they had a getaway vehicle."

Kurt hears the elevator beep over on the other side of the room. "As soon as my team gets here, we'll get—"

The next thing he knows, a loud whoosh rips through the room, several papers fly into the air and scatter everywhere, and a rather cheerful "Heyya Kurt!" is heard right in his ear, making him jump in surprise. He looks over, and he sees his favorite roommate smiling right at him.

"Sonic?!" Kurt exclaims, looking around at the people having to pick up their papers. "You can't just blaze through buildings like that!"

Sonic looks back at what Kurt is referring to, watching everyone looking at him with an irritated look as they return back to work. Sonic blushes a little in embarrassment as he scratches the back of his head. "Oh, oops…sorry about that…"

Kurt pinches the bridge of his nose. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Sonic asks rhetorically. "I'm here to help you out!" Kurt is a little taken aback by Sonic's statement. Never before has Sonic really shown much of a care for his line of work, as it is a job that requires a lot of patience, a department that Sonic is certainly lacking in. The only patience he has is when he finds the perfect place for a quick nap. It seems that Kurt's expressions are easy to read as Sonic can pick up the doubt lurking around him. "Hey, I promised that I was going to help, and that's a promise I intend to keep! So that's why I came along with the others!"

"The others…they're here?" Kurt looks behind him, and indeed sees the Chaotix trio walking up to him. However, there are two newcomers with them, one being an armadillo with a red shell and brown boots, and the other a familiar face who shares a similar fur shade as himself. "Knuckles?"

"Yeah, I'm here." The echidna's tone makes it clear to Kurt that he would rather be anywhere but here, either that or he's got something more important to do. "I used to be part of the Chaotix a long time ago, and Vector decided to reunite the entire team for whatever this is."

"Really?" Kurt actually finds it hard to believe that Knuckles of all people used to be a member of the Chaotix. Why Vector never told him this is still a mystery to him.

"Yep, that's right!" Said crocodile answers. "After our talk, I made a few calls and I've brought the whole gang back together for this one! It's a big one, so we're going to need everyone we can get!"

 _Ain't that the truth…_

"So you must be Kurt!" The armadillo walks up to Kurt, a large grin stretching across his face as he shakes Kurt's hand. "Heard about ya from Vec and Sonic here! The name's Mighty, happened to be in the area and thought I could lend a hand. Nice to meet ya!"

"Yeah, likewise." Kurt responds, returning the gesture. Mighty seems like a cheerful soul, Kurt can see the two of them possibly becoming good friends if their interests align.

"Mighty here helped out with us way back before branching off to do other things." Vector explains. "I thought that it would be helpful to—"

"Ah, it looks like we're a bit late to the party." A seductive voice utters from behind Kurt that makes him instantly freeze up and blush, for he knows _exactly_ who that voice belongs to.

 _Fuck, you have got to be kidding me…_ her _?!_

He looks over his shoulder, and he does indeed see the bat in question, but is rather surprised to see Shadow standing next to her as well, looking as unhappy as ever.

Sonic is the first to greet them. "What is this I hear about a party?"

"Fool." Shadow huffs. "There is no party. This is a time to be serious."

"Hey!" Sonic defends himself, rather offended by Shadow's words. "Quit being such a party pooper, Shads! Why've you gotta be so hostile?"

"Enough, guys!" Kurt has had enough of the other two hedgehogs quarreling with each other. "Arguing over nothing won't get us anywhere!" Everyone then turns their attention to Kurt, while said hedgehog does his best to ignore Rouge so that she doesn't distract him. "Shadow is right, now is not the time for games and fooling around. We've got an underground organization to eliminate. Now, there are several dead bodies down in the morgue, and we've gotta trace the dots back to the source. These guys are _extremely_ difficult to track, as they cover up their tracks very well. We have got to remain alert to anything and everything that pops up.

"As I was discussing with Agents Flood and Banks earlier, the next best move for us is if we can locate the security footage from the crime scenes, or rather where the bodies were dumped, go over them and see if we can find out how they got there. If we are lucky, we could get facial recognitions, but if not, we can hopefully use plates on a getaway car to analyze the owner, though it'd likely that they were stolen."

"So, what do we do, 'boss'?" Vector asks.

Kurt has to shake his head and turn away, as he is not used to being referred to as an authority figure. He's more used to being the one out of the spotlight and getting the work done in the shadows around it, only appearing under the light when reaching the pinnacle and ends with the take down. He has never had to actually take point on a case before, so he can't say he has much leadership experience. He clenches his fists to keep himself from trembling, he is slightly intimidated by the position and the duties that come with it. He is responsible for all of them, and he can't allow them to get hurt by the ring, so he will do all in his power to make sure that they stay safe.

Before he can give Vector an answer, his phone starts to ring in his pocket. He picks it up and answers the call immediately. "This is Kurt."

"Agent Kurt, I have been informed that another body has been found with descriptions matching our current victims." The Commander's voice responds through the device. Kurt can feel a wave of nausea begin to build up in him upon realizing _another_ person is dead because of him, but he pushes it back down, he _cannot_ afford to let this beat him anymore. "The address has been sent to your phone."

"Understood sir." I could hear the text tone go off as I ended the call, seeing an address pop up on my screen. A cough catches my attention, and I look to see my team of eight looking on and awaiting orders. "Well first things first, another body's been found. Rouge, I'm going to exchange numbers with you so I can send you the address. Do you know the gear we'll need at the crime scene?"

She nods with a small smile. "Sure do."

It actually puts Kurt at ease now that she seems to be acting a little more seriously, and now he feels that he can work with her a little better. "Okay, I'm going to make sure everyone gets a phone if you don't have one already. Rouge, once you get the address, take the others down to the crime scene, bring the gear with you, and assign each of them with a task they can do to help."

"Have no faith in your team?" Sonic bears a smug look on his face.

"It's not that I don't have faith in you guys," Kurt is quick to fire back, "it's that a government-led homicide case is handled a lot differently than private case of finding a missing cat. I'm not sure who has experience in what, so I just want to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing. So everyone go with Rouge—oh, except for you, Vector. I need you with me."

Kurt is quick to send the address to Rouge's device upon exchanging numbers. After gathering names of those who need phones, the groups split off, with the main team following Rouge to the crime scene, while Kurt and Vector venture further into the building to complete the given task.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry that this chapter is so late guys. I guess that I've just been putting these edits off for so long. It's not easy to get going when the spark has sort of died down a little. But I told myself that I was going to get this whole thing finished and uploaded, so that's what I'm going to do, chapter by chapter.**

 **I almost uploaded this chapter during the week because I felt like I owed you guys, but there is _always_ something else that needs to be fixed. There's still so much that needs to be done to this story, and to handle this editing process all on my own tends to be a bit of a hassle sometimes. I am considering looking for beta readers to take a look at my chapters before I upload them and tell me where I can improve.**

 **So updates are going to be slower for an undetermined period of time, as most of the remaining chapters in this arc are in need of a heavy overhaul. Can't say when the next chapter will be out because I'm writing it from scratch.** **I may post updates here and let you know how things are coming along, and when I can, I'll try to update when I plan to release the next chapter. If you want a quicker response, hmu w/ an ask on Tumblr (or pm me here, either one works)! I'd love to talk with you guys about anything, whether it be about Kurt or the story or, well…anything!**

 **But until the next update, please feel free to leave a review on what you think down below! Honestly, reviews are more powerful than you may think they are. They are what really drives me and inspires me to write because it shows that you guys really do like this story and want to see more of it. I want to say thanks to BlueYusei and PixTV, you guys really do help motivate me to keep going with this story!**

 **In the meantime, you can go and check out my other Sonic one-shot I've written called Dreams!**

* * *

 **Next time on No Matter What:**

 **The case is on…**


	10. UPDATE 1-12

Hey y'all, long time no see, huh?

ItstheCap here, and yes I still live. I apologize for my long absence and hiatus from this story. Things have been hectic over the past year, all filled with drama and depression, it genuinely felt like living in the middle of a high school AU that takes place at a boarding school. I'm not gonna go into that though, no need to bring drama about here too.

 _ **ANYWAY-**_

The original reason for my hiatus was due to a new chapter I was writing from scratch after developing the whole story (kind of threw me for a loop) and I hit writer's block, you know how it goes. Then as I said before, things just got hectic in life, and I shelved this for a while. After some time passed and I gained new friends, my viewpoint on this story started to change and it made me feel very uncomfortable.

But I don't want to just trash this fic, I've had this story planned for over 3 years, and I won't just let all that time go to waste. So instead, I'm going to slowly reread over this, check on things I want to change, and consult help from some new friends I have gained over the past year. I know that writing used to be a big thing for me so I want to get back into it, and as a start, I want to get back to this story.

I know that you guys have been waiting for something new for so long (sorry for going so long w/o an update) and hopefully something new will be coming. I'm going to take my time to get back into things, making sure everything is planned out the way I want it to go, and I _will_ get this done. It was a promise I made and I will not give up on this.

But I do have something to show you guys that you've been asking for! If you glance over to the cover of this story, you will see our lovely protagonist Kurt smiling upon your discovery (I didn't forget about you BlueYusei uwu). Yes, he has a design (sort of, nearly finished), I even found a jacket irl that matches his in the past month! And I bet you can guess who owns it now xD

But yeah that's about all I got for you. I'm on the comeback now, getting back to work on the story. I wouldn't expect anything to come too soon, but I'll try to make updates when I can. Right now my goal is to get stuff out around late spring or early summer, so expect something then. Just know this story isn't dead, we will be back with Kurt's adventure soon enough! Until next time, Cap out!


	11. UPDATE 6-24

Hiya everyone! Hope y'all are doing well!

ItstheCap here, providing you with the story update I promised back in January!

It's now summertime, so here I am to let y'all know what's up! Unfortunately, I don't have a chapter to give you yet, so for those of you who are just coming across this for the first time sorry! For you as well as those returning, I'll let you know where the story stands.

So I've been doing heavy rewrites to the story over the past several months. Some bits have been removed, others have been added, chapters have been cut or combined with other chapters, and more. It's not quite as dark as it used to be, but regardless it will still remain an M-rated fic.

With the amount of progress I've made, I'm hoping that I will be able to start cranking out the chapters by mid to late September, or at least that is my current goal. I apologize for how long this has taken, but I want to make sure that I get this right for you the readers to enjoy. The first sign that I will be getting ready to upload the new chapters will be when I remove the chapters that are currently here, so just a heads up ;3

On another note, I plan to have Kurt's final design finished before the first chapter is released. It's so close to completion, and I am so excited to show y'all once he overcomes his shyness and is ready for the world to see him!

So yeah, progress is being made, but it's going a bit slower at the moment for some fine tuning. This might take a little bit of time, depending on what other events get thrown into daily life. Expect the next thing to be a progress update, hopefully around the end of July or early August.

Thanks to those who have stuck around for so long, I sincerely do appreciate your support and thank you so so much for over 1000 views! I didn't actually think it would get this many views so thanks, y'all are so awesome!

That's all I got for now. Hope y'all have a fantastic week, and I'll see ya at the next update!


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